Gundam: Federation's End
by Tommah-kun
Summary: (Author's Cut-ised) In war, one move can change the course of history.... especially if nuclear devices are involved. (My first fic, keep criticism constructive, PLEASE)
1. The Jaburo Incident and The Aftermath

(Here begins the Author's Cut… not much has changed, aside from more detail and fixed plot inconsistencies… think of it as the "movie" version of the Federation's End story.  R&R, feedback appreciated.) 

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It is late Universal Century 0079. During the One Year War, both the Earth Federation and the rebellious spaceborne Principality of Zeon have developed fearsome humanoid weapons named Mobile Suits and used them against each other.

However, the Principality discovers the Earth Federation's main secret base in South America, Jaburo.

With the Federation's uber-mobile suit, Gundam, and its carrier docked there, the Zeon make a terrifying move and violate the Antarctic Treaty by firing a nuclear weapon into Jaburo, annihilating almost everything there.

With the Gundam and all hopes of mass-producing it in enough numbers seemingly destroyed by this deadly strike, the Zeon forces begin crushing the remaining Federation troops and preparing Earth for the ruling Zabi family's dominion. However, there are still those that resist, made up of Earth Federation survivors and ex-Zeon soldiers dissatisfied with the Zabis' imperialism...

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22 days earlier, 08th November 0079

"Blast those Feddies... Why the hell do we have to abandon Odessa anyhow?"

Keith Holt sighed within the cockpit of his assigned MS-06J. A Zaku redesigned for ground combat, it had marginally better performance than the older F-type. "Climb on that command tower and take a look, Mac. There's plenty of reasons why we have to leave."

Mac's own F-type Zaku II leapt into the air, hit its thrusters and landed on the tower, a blocky and ugly structure. From there Mac had a view of the surrounding wilderness around Odessa. "My god..."

"That's right. 5000 Type 61 tanks, four Big Tray land battleships, and I've heard that the Feddies have their own Mobile Suits around somewhere." Keith said.

"What? You mean the Zakus those bastards have got their slimy claws on?" Mac replied.

Keith sighed again. "No, they've actually made their own suits. I've seen one while I was out on patrol.

It looked pretty pathetic, so I decided to put it out of its miserable existence." he said, not revealing just how difficult it was to put an end to a GM Ground Type, especially if it had a beam rifle in its hands. His old Zaku I had been trashed in the battle, but Keith had given as good as he got, leaving the GM little more than a scorch on the ground and a few unidentified parts. 

Mac grinned. "Right, Keith.... What?! Looks like the Feddies are heading right this way!"

Keith swore angrily. "Right, tell me where they're coming from. It's time for me to give them a Zeonic welcome."

"Er... around north-northwest. Give 'em some hellish hospitality, bud." Mac chuckled darkly.

"Sure will." With that, Keith's Zaku turned and charged north, aiming to intercept.

_________________________________________________________

Keith laughed as several of the advancing Type 61 tanks fell to his Zaku's machine gun. Its rattling was the sound of doom for these tanks' crews, and Keith took care to aim for the turret. If the ammo in there went up, it'd waste less of his own bullets to wipe out these pathetic insects. 

"How'd you like them apples, huh?"

The remaining tanks fired a volley of cannon fire, but Keith's Zaku easily sidestepped them with the aid of its thrust engines.

Keith quickly returned fire, and with only a few shells turned them into forlorn-looking wrecks.

A squadron of Fly Manta bombers zipped over Keith. 

Though he turned around and fired his machine gun at them, he only managed to take down two.

Suddenly, something odd appeared on the Zaku's sensors. "What the...?" Keith thought.

A Mobile Suit was approaching. And by the looks of it, it wasn't a Ground Type GM.As it got closer, Keith could tell what it was. 

A Gundam, heading right for him.

Keith grinned, and pushed at the controls. The Zaku leapt into the air, fired its thrusters and flew towards the Gundam for a short distance.

The Gundam did the same, and was the first of the two mobile suits to fire. A stream of bullets flew through the air and made several dents in the Zaku's left shoulder armour, bluntening one of the spikes.

Keith was surprised. He'd expected it to have punched a hole in his suit's chest with a beam rifle instantly. 

Evidently this wasn't the Gundam which had devastated so many Zeonic units and even stood up to the legendary Red Comet, but a slightly less tough ground combat model.

Still, Gundam or not, Keith was going to add it to his kill list or die trying. So, his Zaku charged at the Gundam, spewing bullets from its own machine gun.

The Gundam managed to take the machine gun rounds with only a few little dents, which didn't surprise Keith at all. The Gundam he'd heard about could take out the newest and best MS the Principality had to offer, surely a few Zaku bullets wouldn't do much to it.

That left only one option: to try and beat it in close combat. Now, Keith had heard this was the single dumbest thing it was possible to do when faced with a Gundam or, for that matter, any other Federal mobile suit. The beam sabres that most of them carried could cut through a Zaku's armour like it was paper.

Still, he'd have to try. _Aim for the head…_he reminded himself as he slipped out the heat hawk from its housing on the Zaku's hip.

Luck was on Keith's side as the pilot of this Gundam panicked and fired the vulcan gun in the chest of his mobile suit, barely even scratching the Zaku as it lunged and sliced a huge gouge in its opponent's head.

The Gundam staggered back from the blow, recovered and drew its beam sabre, but it swung a little too much to the right in its first attack. Keith backed off, but the Gundam charged after him and swung its sabre again. Again, it missed.

Keith did some quick thinking. Why the hell was the Gundam missing each time it attacked?

Then he noticed its head. He'd hit it in the head, and in the process probably damaged its camera eye. As the Gundam flailed in another pathetic attempt to destroy its enemy, Keith realised that was true. Didn't the thing have any backup cameras? 

Keith scowled. He could leave the helpless Gundam alone, but he'd used a lot of effort and to let it go wouldn't be a clever move. The way the battle for Odessa was going, it'd probably get repaired and come back.

All of these thoughts contributed to Keith's decision, which was to knock it to the ground with another blow (in the process slicing off his foe's shield) and empty his Zaku's machine gun clip into it until it was probably too damaged to fix. What became of the pilot, Keith didn't know and didn't really care.

Then it hit him. He'd just completely wasted a Gundam. The most feared unit of the Feddies had been crippled by his hand. The Gundam's mere appearance was a harbinger of doom and violent ends for many, it seemed. The fact it wasn't the Gundam that was responsible for Ramba Ral and the Black Tri-Stars' defeats seemed irrelevant in this euphoria.

Suddenly, a hurried communication came through from Mac. "Keith, get back here right now! That was a diversion, they're-" was all that was heard before the transmission was cut off, with a sound of an explosion serving to underscore it.

Keith swore again, and turned back. Already he could see the part of Odessa he was stationed at was under heavy fire, with the mass evacuation still in progress.

He hoped he could get back in time...

_____________________________________________________________________

As he got closer, he could see the heavy pounding the base was under. A Big Tray had arrived to help the Feddies, and GM Ground Types swarmed like sandy-brown locusts, opening fire on all they found.

Several Zakus were attempting to quell the attacking forces, without much success. As Keith reached the base, one was hit in the chest by the Big Tray's cannons and exploded in a ball of flame.

Keith knew that suit, it belonged to one of his wingmen. That made the Zeons two down, if you included poor Mac.

Keith, enraged, fired machine-gun bullets into a crowd of GMs, taking care to aim for the head. The GMs' pilots were fast learning why it isn't a good idea to attack in vast numbers, which is lack of space and room to maneuver, and as a result several of them were decapitated by Keith's bursts of gunfire, or even worse their heads were crushed by the heavy shells.

One of the Big Tray's many guns swivelled, and pointed at him. It fired, and he only just managed to leap aside before the cannon shells struck. Instead, they flew through the space where he'd been and destroyed a GM Ground Type by mistake.

As the massed GMs struggled to spread out, Keith dashed to grab a bazooka from a fallen Zaku. Checking his ammo, he prepared to fight.

The first bazooka shell hit a GM full in the chest and exploded, blowing a huge chunk of it apart. A burst of machine gun fire to its legs ensured it wouldn't be able to move, but Keith was already aiming for his next target.

All of the Big Tray's guns turned to him. _Oh, damn… what do I do? Aim for the bridge, that's it… If the brain is destroyed, the body dies too. _Just as the Big Tray's gunners prepared to fire… Keith's bazooka loosed one shell and blew a massive hole in the bridge. Leaping onto the wreckage of the bridge, Keith madly fired his bazooka until it was out of ammo. 

However, this was enough. Almost all the GM Ground Types had been either destroyed or disabled. One lay on the ground, its leg blown off, feebly trying to move away. One had its entire cockpit mangled, and just lay there, its pilot dead.

Only one GM remained. Drawing its beam sabre, it sprang at Keith and sliced at him, an attack he was barely able to dodge.

Frantically, Keith kicked out, and the GM was knocked down from the Big Tray by his Zaku's heavy steel foot. Tossing aside his bazooka, Keith lifted his machine gun and prepared to finish his opponent off.

Suddenly, the GM rocketed forward, its thrusters lifting it off the ground and towards Keith. Keith's Zaku leapt, and the GM smashed into the dirt on the other side of the Big Tray's remains.

Keith didn't hesitate this time. He just hefted his machine gun and fired several rounds into the back of the GM before it could move, causing its fuel supply to explode and the entire suit to disappear in the blast. Only a few lumps of metal remained as evidence that it had been there. 

A group of Cui personnel carriers, escorted by a Zaku and a group of Magella Attack tanks, moved past the scene, and Keith could hear the wild cheers of the men aboard.

Then, a Fat Uncle cargo plane landed beside him, and he moved his Zaku into the cargo bay. Getting out of his Zaku, Keith realised he'd just taken out almost ten GM Ground Types and crippled a Big Tray land battleship alone, in only a standard Ground type Zaku II. People he knew had been killed at the controls of the very same machine, but he had almost miraculously survived…

For this, Keith was nicknamed Odessa's Avenger.

__________________________________________________________________

30th November 0079

"Right, lads! Let's get 'em back for Odessa!"

The commander's cry was greeted with huge cheering from almost all people on the Gaw carriers heading for Jaburo. The most dreaded ship in all of the Federation fleet, known to the Zeons only as the Trojan Horse, had arrived there and unknowingly revealed its location, and now they were coming to wipe it out.

Keith, however, sighed and prepared for combat. His Zaku had been replaced by a new Commander Zaku II for his actions at Odessa, but he truly didn't care. Besides, its higher acceleration made it tougher to bring under control than his older Zaku.

At least he was allowed to give it a different paint job, which he did. His personal Zaku gleamed silver, causing it to stand out from the greens and blues of the two mobile suits around it.

"Approaching drop zone, prepare for deployment," the commander's voice boomed through the loudspeakers, "and make me proud! Kill those dumb Feddies before they know what hit 'em!"

A chorus of "Yes, sir"s were heard, and then a jumble of footsteps as the MS and Dopp pilots scurried to get to their machines. Keith leapt into the cockpit of his Zaku, closed the hatch, and moved it towards the open deployment hatch on the Gaw.

"Launch.... NOW!" Keith's Zaku fired all its thrusters and rocketed out from the hatch, its pilot rammed back into his seat by the massive G-forces. Keith quickly switched off the thrusters again, and the Zaku entered freefall and began heading down towards the jungles of South America below.

Another Zaku leapt from the hatch afterwards, closely followed by a Gouf. All three began to fall towards Jaburo....

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Unbeknowest to the brave pilots descending to attack, a terrible plan was being concocted onboard one of the Gaws. Commander Sceers was considering an option that would offer total victory, but an option banned after the merciless slaughter of billions.

_But who would care, if we won this one?_ he thought to himself.

He was considering launching a surface-penetrating nuclear bomb into Jaburo.

A lower-ranking officer came in. "Sir, you know use of nuclear weapons is prohibited under the Antarctic Treaty? Surely this order is a mistake-"

"It's not a mistake. Now get that nuke readied, or I'll have you court-martialed for insubordination!" screamed Sceers. 

Resigned to his duty, the officer gloomily trooped off to have the nuclear warhead prepped. He had little idea that obeying this order would mean changing the course of the entire war....

___________________________________________________________________

"Right. Now, this is the biggest of all Feddie bases, so it's a cert they'll have some mobile suits guarding. So get your guns ready the moment you land. Right, fire thrusters! Cushion your landing!" Keith yelled at the other two MS pilots, Ash and Jeth.

The two pilots did their best, slowing their descent despite the hail of machine gun fire from the Federation defense guns, whose gunners had woken up to the fact that a raid was happening and that the base had been discovered.

"Looks like they know we're here..." Keith muttered as he touched down, landing among the trees. A pair of mono-eye sensors glowed a pale red around him, as Ash and Jeth landed.

Several Dopp fighters flew overhead, being chased by a pair of Jet Core Boosters.

Ash scowled. "Damned Feddie punks... let's go find an entrance, I wanna kill these scum once and for all.."

Keith smiled. Ash was still as crazy as ever, and he hated the Federation ever since the catastrophic Battle of Loum. When he heard Zeonic-doctored reports of the carnage of that battle, he joined the Principality on the spot.  "Soon, Ash, soon. First we gotta clear the surface defenses."

"That'll be difficult. Since it's the most important base of all, it's gonna have bloody tough defenses." reasoned Jeth. His quick planning and high combat skills earned him the Gouf he piloted after Odessa, though Keith reckoned he could beat him in a fair one-on-one battle.

As the sound of machine-gun fire and even a few cannon shots were heard, Keith and his two wingmen advanced through the dense jungle towards an entrance, hoping to take care of the defenders there. At last they came to a clearing, with a large, brownish lake fed by two streams. Almost immediately, three GM Ground Types spotted them and began firing their machine guns.

"Dammit! Evasive maneuvers! Jeth, you kill 'em up close. Ash and I will give 'em a couple of bullets to remember." Keith fired his machine gun at a GM, but Jeth seemed to have the situation under control, frying the GMs' controls with his heat rod and slicing them into pieces with his heat sabre. The moment that superheated piece of metal slammed into the armour, it cut increasingly large, damaging holes into the enemy. _He doesn't need my help…_ Instead, Keith busied himself with annihilating the defensive guns around, which were too busy taking potshots at the Gaws and Dopps overhead to fight back too well.

"Here, I found an entrance!" Ash yelled. Indeed, he'd found an entrance, a large maintenance and supply tunnel. Luckily, it looked capable of holding a mobile suit.

"Wait. Have we got rid of the defenses around here?" Keith asked.

As if on cue, a Federal mobile suit emerged from the trees.

But this was nothing like a Gundam or GM Ground Type.

"Bloody hell..." Jeth growled, and his Gouf leapt at it and began attacking it, oblivious and uncaring as to what its capabilities might be. The pilot was too slow, and could only get off one shot with some small handheld beam weapon before Jeth killed it, which melted a hole in his Gouf's shield.

"That has got to be one of the poorest mobile suits ever..." he grinned.

Keith's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, but even the Feddies wouldn't have any trouble mass-producing it... oh, my god. We have to get into Jaburo and take care of their mobile suits for good!"

As one, the three mobile suits charged into the tunnel.

Right at the very same moment, the infamous Char Aznable was going to try and accomplish the very same task through an underwater entryway, and Commander Sceers got the news that Jaburo was producing MS. Immediately, he decided to drop the nuke.

____________________________________________________________________

Keith and his wingmen had barely gotten a mile into the tunnel before a sudden grinding or drilling noise and screams were heard coming from deeper down.

"I-"Keith began, but Ash interrupted him with a "I'll check that out for you, chief-Keith."

Keith grinned again. Say what you like about his team, they had a sense of humour despite the heavy losses they had suffered during the course of the war. Sadly, his losses were about to rise again.

Ash charged down the tunnel. "Okay, I'm in... now.. Oh my god! What the hell is that coming through the roof?! GET OUTTA HERE, RIGHT NOW!!"

A split-second after Ash's screamed warning, the nuclear bomb that had been slowly, inevitably drilling through the surface of Jaburo got through and hit the ground, where it detonated in a  blinding flash.

Keith had already hit his thrusters and was heading out. He didn't know why, but before Ash's discovery he knew something was wrong, and he'd stayed at the back of the squad just in case. Now he was flying at full speed out of the tunnel, glad of his high-speed Zaku IIS commander suit for a change.

Ash's dying scream echoed in his ears, followed by Jeth's as the radiation-filled explosion consumed them both. Keith narrowed his tear-filled eyes and pushed the throttle down, squeezing every last bit of energy from the Zaku's thrusters.

He made it through the tunnel entryway, right before the entrance spewed a fountain of flame as the radioactive blast reached its limit and dissipated. Exhausted and filled with adrenaline, Keith crashed his Zaku into a tree, where he fell unconsious.

A second nuclear bomb was fired into Jaburo, with both bombs causing a massive slaughter of both Federal and Zeonic soldiers. Original estimated casualties reached into the thousands. Only a handful of both sides, and the Dopps, Gaws and various aircraft above, survived what would be known as the Jaburo Incident.

On the other side of the base, a Pegasus-class ship launched in a frantic effort to escape the second blast. Despite a valiant effort, its engines were consumed by the blast just before it could escape the launching tunnel and it smashed into the ground outside.

The name printed on its bow read, "EFSF: _White Base_".

_________________________________________________________________   

When something as momentous as a nuclear strike occurs, it's always a good idea to consider the international and in this case interorbital consequences.

For instance, over in Southeast Asia, when the unhinged Zeon scientist Ginias Sahalin learned of the Jaburo Incident, he is reported to have let out a long, low wail of despair, then taken his pistol and shot himself.

However, over on Side 3, the Zeons' leader Gihren Zabi just grinned and ordered for troops on the Earth to be prepared for his arrival.

All over the world and even at the faraway asteroid base Luna II, Federation soldiers shook their heads and resigned themselves to the fact they had been all but crippled by this strike, and a full Zeonic victory was far closer than ever before.

But there were some Zeonic troops who, disgusted by this barbarism, mutinied and deserted in mass numbers. Almost all of them took their weapons, whether it was a mobile suit, a tank or a fighter plane. 

They became known as the Anti-Zabi Rebellion.

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1st December 0079

Keith awoke within the familiar surroundings of his Zaku's cockpit. He rubbed his head, which was beginning to throb with pain, and wondered what had happened. All screens in his cockpit were either showing bursts of static or shades of brown.

Then he remembered. Tears trickled down his face as he thought of his fallen friends. Surely Ash and Jeth didn't deserve to die that way, after heroically fighting so long, to be snuffed out just like that?

Pulling himself together, Keith tugged at the controls. The Zaku barely moved.

"Oh, this is just bloody typical..." he muttered. It seemed Keith would have to call for help, but there seemed to be no Zeon units around.

After a few minutes of coaxing movement out of his Zaku, Keith managed to get the cockpit open and climbed out. Then he began to look around, seeing Jaburo for the first time after its destruction.

Chunks of earth and rock were everywhere. Parts of demolished mobile suits littered the now-barren landscape, with a huge area of land denuded of trees and other vegetation. Keith wondered which side had dropped the nuclear bomb, and was forced to confront the fact it was probably his own side.

"Not a very nice sight, is it?" said a voice beside him. Keith whirled around to find a young man with long blonde hair and wearing a Federation uniform pointing a gun at him. "Hold still, you pathetic Zeek... aren't so tough when your mobile suits aren't working, huh?"  

Far faster than the Federation pilot had thought possible, Keith drew his own gun and pointed it at him. "Could say the same about you, Feddie..." he said.

The blonde young man's eyes widened, but he didn't lose his grip on his weapon.

The two stood like that, pointing their handguns at one another for a few seconds, just waiting for the other to make a wrong move.

Then a young woman wearing a Federal uniform and a badge identifying her as a member of the Medea Supply Corps ran out from the bushes.

"Stop it, both of you!" she yelled. "This poor guy's probably been left behind by the Zeons after they nuked the place... put the gun down, James!"

"Yeah, right, Tiff.. you'd probably let him kill us both!" James growled at her.

Keith scowled and yelled, "For God's sake, I'm not in a mood to kill ANYONE! Over half of my squad are dead, I've been stuck here for almost a whole day, do you think I want to kill you like some homicidal loony?" 

"Why else do you follow one, you idiot?" James countered. "That's right, Gihren Zabi. He's probably coming to enslave the lot of us because of morons like you!"

"James, could you leave him alone? His Zaku's crippled and the Zeons've left this place to rot. What harm could he do to us?"

Keith ignored her. Finally, he turned to them with his eyes brimming with tears and said, "I don't care who they are. I don't care whether they're on your side or mine. I just want revenge on those responsible for this."

James grinned darkly. "Nice sob speech. Next you'll be trying to assassinate Gihren."

Tiff leant over and yelled in James' ear, "HELLO!? YOU HEAR THAT?! HE'S ON _OUR_ SIDE! We want vengeance too, or have you forgotten that?"

James nearly fell over from this high-volume yelling, but he growled back, "Right! Go fix his Zaku or something! Or maybe joining the Zeeks yourself would be a good idea!"

Tiff scowled. "No need for you to be like that. But I will help fix his Zaku." Motioning Keith to follow her, she asked him, "What's your name?"

"Eh... Keith, what's yours?" Keith replied.

"Tiffany... but everyone calls me Tiff. Keith's a nice name... shame it's hardly used, especially by space colonists."

"Yeah, everyone I knew called their kids really weird things..." Keith muttered.

Finally they reached their destination, a damaged and badly-dented Medea with a Gundam Ground Type lying on the ground beside it.

"Now, listen. Before we help you, you have to swear on your life not to harm us or tell your old big bosses where we are, right? Mind you, they probably won't care too much for you anyway..." Tiff said as she pressed a button, opening the cargo bay of her Medea.

Keith smiled. Tiff did seem to be too trusting, but he wasn't going to repay the pair's kindness in that way. "Okay, I swear."

Tiff smiled. "Thanks. JAMES! Get your ass over here now, we have a Zaku to move!"  

Grumbling, James strode past them and hopped into his Gundam Ground Type.

As the Mobile Suit strode past, Tiff turned to Keith again and said, "Sorry about James, he isn't too trusting. He is a nice guy though... but he's good with that Gundam, he had to be to survive what happened here..."

Keith sighed. "And you?"

Tiff shrugged. "Eh... I managed to get my Medea clear of Jaburo before the second nuke hit. But a Zaku got my engine and I ended up crashing. James got the Zaku back for that, though..."

James' Gundam walked past again, dragging the Zaku along the ground. Its feet left marks in the turf as it was pulled along.

Tiff's eyes widened when she saw Keith's silvery Commander Zaku. "Sheesh... you must be pretty high up to get a Zaku like that... how'd you earn the right to pilot that anyway?"

Keith chuckled. "You think so? Eh, I didn't do that much, really. I got it for what happened at Odessa.."

"What happened at Odessa?"

"I helped the base evacuate when it was being abandoned. I think I got one Gundam Ground Type and nine GMs... oh, and a Big Tray too." Keith replied.

"Oh, my god... you're the Odessa Avenger, aren't you!?" Tiff stepped back in surprise. "You've actually been voted sixth most feared Zeon pilot in Federal circles, y'know..."

Keith blushed. "Really? I didn't think I'd get that far... who's number one anyway?" he said, grinning.

Tiff grinned back. "Char Aznable... but I heard he was actually in Jaburo when it got bombed."

"One more thing the Zabis have to answer for..." Keith thought to himself.

James got the Gundam to lie down, then hopped out of the cockpit. Before he could open his mouth, Tiff snapped, "Before you go on, he's sworn not to hurt us or tell the other Zeons we're here, so quit badgering him."

"So? What's his word worth? A dog's breakfast?" James retorted.

Tiff grinned. "Pester him too much and the chance of having the Odessa Avenger on our side will slip through our fingers, and that'd really get me riled.."

James' eyes went wide. "HE'S the Odessa Avenger?"

Tiff's grin widened. "Yep. Voted sixth deadliest Zeon pilot, as well you know."

Keith chuckled. He'd never experienced being a legend before, and he reckoned he'd start to like it.

____________________________________________________________

"I've detected something on the infra-red heat scanners, sir. It's very weak, but I think it could be survivors!"

"Which side? Oh, who cares... launch all Mobile Suits."

_____________________________________________________________

As Tiff and James began finding parts from the wrecked Zakus around to help fix his own, Keith sat down and thought. What would he do now, after his own side had betrayed him? The Federation had been knocked to its knees by this nuclear blast, Keith could tell.

After around an hour, Tiff came back. "You know what the main problem was with your Zaku? I'm no expert on Zeonic mobile suits, but it seems that part of the arm motors were dislodged when you crashed... I'm gonna try and reinforce it, but just try and look where you're flying next time!" she said, laughing.

Keith laughed too. "Thanks..." Suddenly, the ground shook and repeated crashing and grinding sounds were heard. They sounded horribly like a Zaku's ground movements, and he said, "What the..? Tiff, try and get that Zaku fixed as soon as you can! I think there's trouble coming!"

As Tiff dashed off to prepare the Zaku, an answering grinding noise was heard as James' Ground Gundam rose to its feet.

Suddenly, a Ground Zaku II charged through the remaining trees and began firing at James. Though it was a skilled attack, the sheer power and strength of the Gundam showed through and its shield absorbed most of the attack, though its body's armour took some damage.

Keith ran for his Zaku. He didn't care whether it was ready or not, he just wanted to be at the controls of it, so he could at least try and do something.

As he reached his Zaku, he saw Tiff run towards him, saying "I just fixed the-OW!" as Keith accidentally bumped into her in his rush to get to his mobile suit.

"Well, excuse me!" she shouted after him, then after Keith didn't answer but instead leapt into his Zaku, wisely decided to take cover.

Slowly, light glinted as Keith's Zaku clambered onto its feet. With just a few touches of the controls on Keith's part it leapt onto the attacking Zaku, pulled its heat hawk out and decapitated it before it could move, slicing off its right arm for good measure.

Keith let out a primal yell as he rammed the Zaku into the floor and almost sliced it in two with another blow. Understandably, the enemy exploded.

Both Tiff and James stood in utter shock. He'd destroyed one of the enemies just like that, before they could even fire? This amazement didn't last long, as another Zaku unwisely decided to land on the horribly scorched and denuded area of ground and James dealt with it swiftly, filling its metal body with machine-gun bullets.

"Where the hell are they coming from!?" James yelled to Keith through the communication channel, all rivalry and dislike between the two near-forgotten in this new threat. His question was immediately answered by the sight of a Zanzibar cruiser flying overhead.

"Damn..." Keith muttered, and opened the cockpit, yelling down to Tiff,  "Can you get the Medea ready? We need to take that big green bugger out!"

Tiff shouted back, "No use! It's embedded in the ground, and even then there's bullets stuck in one of the engines!"

James sighed. "I think we could fire at it from the ground."

"Hey, have you noticed I only have my Zaku's machine gun, I didn't bring an entire arsenal! Nothing I have can take out a Zanzibar before it can leave!" Keith replied.

"Well, pardon me for existing!" James yelled back, irked. His Gundam strode towards the Medea, opened the cargo bay with one finger and pulled out three pieces of metal.

As it began fitting them together, Keith realised it was a bazooka.

Slamming a clip into the bazooka, James' Gundam took aim. There was no way a single bazooka could destroy it in mid-air, unless it had a little help from gravity...

He fired. The shell slammed into the Zanzibar's right engines, exploded, and sent it slowly spiralling out of control towards its demise.

One Zaku escaped the Zanzibar before it hit the ground, however. Instead of seeking revenge for its fallen carrier, it scrambled away, heading around the outside of Jaburo's remains.

"I'm going after it. Cover me." Keith said into the communication channel before igniting his thrusters and practically leaping after the fleeing Zaku. 

James sighed and followed. The Zaku they were pursuing turned to fire a few rounds periodically, but otherwise kept running, its pilot obviously panicking.

Finally, right in front of a very strange crashed ship, the Zaku turned around and began to fight back. Out of desperation, the pilot repeatedly fired on Keith's Zaku.

Keith never gave him a chance to hit him, as he kept using his thrusters to dodge and maneuver faster than his opponent could aim. Bullets flew through the air, but none of them even came close. Finally, James used his bazooka to blow the Zaku up with a single shell in its chest.

"Whoa.. what the hell is this?" James asked, pointing at the massive crashed ship. It was huge, capable of storing mobile suits inside its hull. Its engines were missing, but Keith had heard rumours about this sort of ship...

"What's this thing called?" Keith asked. "Have a look, try and find any name for it..."

James opened his Gundam's cockpit, got it to kneel and hopped out. "Right... er... 'Whi'.... something I can't make out..."

Keith opened up his own cockpit and yelled out of it. "Wipe off the mud or whatever if you have to!"

James sighed and wiped the bow of the ship. "My god... this is the White Base!"

______________________________________________________________

Tiff, James and Keith walked unsteadily through the slanted ruins of White Base.

They had a huge amount of trouble with getting the airlock open, but that was easily settled when James used his Gundam's beam sabre to burn a hole through it. 

"My god.." Tiff whispered as they walked through the darkness. There was the stench of death in the air, and a flickering red light exposed several forms on the floor which none of them wanted to look too closely at.

"Is it true that this ship had the first Gundam aboard?" Keith asked.

"Yeah... my Ground Gundam was actually made from spares of it." James replied.

"Then a good bet would be to take a look inside the Mobile Suit hangar, wouldn't it?"

"Good idea... but who'd get the controls of the Gundam?"

Tiff suddenly ran towards the bridge and opened the door. Inside was a horrible sight, one that would stay with the three for the rest of their lives. All the crew were dead, either from the impact or falling onto the broken glass that now littered the floor. Among the dead was a young man with dark hair, who sat in the captain's seat.

"Check the ship's log, would you?" James whispered. He didn't feel it was right to talk too loudly here, after so many had died.

"Okay... The latest entry is, 'Arrived at Jaburo. The ship's being repaired as I write this, as are Gundam, Guncannon and Guntank. I hear the Federation is at a turning point in the war, with its own mass-production mobile suits.' Not any more, it seems.." Tiff declared after reading the log.

"Mass-production mobile suits? I think I bumped into one of those before the nuke drop..." Keith said.

"You probably did.. they're the mass-production GMs... Wait, I've figured out what we have to do. We want revenge, but we can't beat the Zeons without help, right? And Jaburo was the only place that had functional GMs, so..." James said while thinking to himself.

"Ah, I get it. We need to find some GMs that aren't that badly damaged and take 'em somewhere so they can get produced again, yeah?" Keith said.

"Yep... our best bet is Luna II, it's now the largest Federation base after Jaburo got nuked. But there's one snag: it's up in space. We need a vehicle to get us up there."

James sighed, shaking his head. "Any suggestions?"

Tiff smiled. "First, we'd better see whether there's any mobile suits on this ship we can use. We'd best find the mobile suit hangar, hm?"

___________________________________________________________________

As they entered the hangar, it became clear that the crew weren't the only things to have been destroyed on the White Base. A huge blue, yellow and red mass of twisted metal lay atop a large set of tank tracks. A GM-alike red mobile suit stood behind it, with one of its arms missing and the other utterly mangled.

Behind both of them lay the Gundam, which miraculously only escaped with a few scratches and a tiny part of its head crest missing.

"My God... Guncannon and Guntank down..." James whispered.

But Keith wasn't listening. He'd ran towards the Gundam and was trying to get inside the cockpit.

"Wait! What are you doing?!" Tiff yelled.

"Making a way out for these mobile suits." Keith said as he closed the Gundam's cockpit. It slowly, purposefully walked towards the side of the hangar and sliced out a large square of it with its beam sabre.

"Ah, I get it.." James grinned. The front launch catapult and hatches were stuck under the earth, and no mobile suits could get out that way. As the Gundam climbed through the improvised exit and back into the jungle, he climbed into the damaged Guncannon and did the same.

Tiff sighed. There seemed to be no way to move the smashed Guntank yet.

Still, she would try. Opening an access panel on the still-intact lower body area, she climbed in and began slowly moving the Guntank backwards. As it moved towards the hole in the hull, Keith reached in and helped her out, though what was left of the Guntank's top half fell off and crashed into the floor.

"Alright!!" There was a cheer by all three of them, though the hard part was just beginning.

"Next, we need to get into Jaburo, or what's left of it..." Keith said.

"No worries... you know most mobile suits' computer systems have a built-in Geiger counter? Just look for 'Radioactive Check' and activate it... and no, it doesn't detect your own mobile suit's reactor." Tiff suggested.

"Let's go. James, either you get your Ground Gundam or my old Zaku, just switch mobile suits as the one you're in isn't going to be any use for excavation... that much is obvious."

"What do you mean? Surely.." James began.

"Yes, I'm using Gundam." Keith replied.

__________________________________________________________________

The mobile suits' "eyes" glowed, which was nearly the only light in the ruins of Jaburo.

Blackened tanks and mobile suits of both sides lay in the darkness, with only a few dim lights and the sun shining through the holes caused by the bombs to see the ruins by.

Tiff, in the Zaku, talked into the commu channel. "Alright, watch your Geigers. You're getting a little close to the blasts' origins, and the cockpits can only take so much radiation."

Keith had already found something. His Gundam moved with lightning pace towards it, but he was disappointed when he found it was only a massively charred Z'Gok.

"Keith, I reckon you ought to look further on. There are GM factories down here, maybe there are some that escaped the blast in 'em." James said.

"Whatever..." Keith hit the thrusters, and was pushed back into his seat when Gundam leapt into the air, landing atop one of the few buildings still standing in Jaburo. "I see something... what?! Something's moving... it's moving VERY fast! Prepare for attack!"

Right after he said that, the movement was revealed as a surviving Dom still stuck in the ruins of Jaburo. Its mono-eye found the Gundam, and it fired its bazooka.

Faster than even he thought possible, Keith dodged the shell and noticed that the Gundam far exceeded his old Zaku in speed. Lifting his beam rifle, he returned fire. A single beam shot pierced the Dom's chest and destroyed it in a heartbeat.

"God, this thing's fast..." Gasping, Keith continued moving. "Right, I reckon there's other mobile suits here, so stay alert!"

"Right." "Okay." 

Tiff began to worry. She'd never even touched the controls of a Mobile Suit till today, and so she was scared of falling prey to some excellent Zeon pilot - maybe even Char Aznable - while in the wreckage of Jaburo. But as they eventually found the single surviving GM factory, her fears were unfounded. 

"YES! We have two fully intact GMs, and a heap of parts! Think we should use these parts on Guncannon?" Keith laughed, as he held up a pair of GM arms in the Luna Titanium hand of Gundam.

"Damnit, yes. I'm not staying in this Gundam Ground Type if there's better around." James replied. He was actually slightly jealous of Keith managing to get to the Gundam's controls first, and there was little doubt it was far tougher than his own.

"Right, let's get these GMs out of here. Now all we need is a ship.." Tiff said. Just then, she noticed a slightly dirty white shape behind the factory. It seemed to look similar to the ill-fated White Base.

"Guys! I think I found something!" she yelled, and moved to investigate. It turned out to be a slightly pitted Pegasus carrier, almost exactly like the White Base except in certain looks. On its bow was printed, in capital letters, "EFSF: _Stallion_".

Keith grinned. "Bloody hell, we're lucky. Tiff, get inside that thing and open the Mobile Suit hangars. James, we've got some mobile suits and parts to move!"

_________________________________________________________________

After two hours of frantic moving and other work, the GMs, parts, Guncannon and Guntank remains, the Ground Gundam and even Keith's Zaku had been loaded onto the carrier. 

Keith was busy thinking of a name for the ship. "I can't stand horses... how about this?" He had rubbed out the name Stallion and was in the process of entering "_Speranza_" as its name.

"What the hell are you naming the ship?" James growled. 

"Heh... it's s'posed to mean 'Hope'. We're gonna need every last drop of it, I think." Keith replied, a grin on his face. 

Tiff interrupted, "If you two are quite done forecasting doom, I think it's time we took off!"

James grinned. "Yes, ma'am!"

Keith sighed, "Once more unto the breach..."

The two pilots got into the ship just before Tiff closed the doors, and slowly the newly-named _Speranza_'s engines and Minovsky Craft System  activated, lifting it off the ground while the ship fired a clutch of missiles, blasting a huge hole in the roof of Jaburo. Through this hole the _Speranza_ flew.

________________________________________________________________

Tiff finished setting a course west and sighed. "We're doing well except for one problem: crew. We don't have enough people to man this thing, and we're doing well just getting it in the air! If we fall under attack, we'll be toast! So I've set a course for Southeast Asia, I hear there's a big Federation base there."

"That's a coincidence, I heard there was a massive weapon under construction there..." Keith muttered.

James smiled. "Well, let's see whether it's got the power to stand up to us, eh!?"

All three chuckled, not aware of the troubles ahead...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


	2. The Fate of Kojima Base

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With mass-production GMs salvaged from the ruins of Jaburo and a ship capable of taking them to Luna II, all Keith, Tiff and James need are crew. To this end, they set a course for Southeast Asia in the hope they can find people to help man the ship there...

_______________________________________________________________

2nd December 0079

"Wake up! We're nearly there!"

Keith moaned and uncurled from his position in one of the seats on the bridge of the _Speranza_. He felt guilty about going to sleep, although the ship had semi-autonomous controls for emergencies, the three had spent a sleepless night of coaxing the ship along. A truly horrible moment had been when James had had to shoot down a Dopp, meaning Tiff and Keith had to do double duty for a few minutes.

"Eh... Really, Tiff?" Keith asked, getting to his feet. "Yes! In fact, we're getting quite close!" Tiff replied, yanking him towards the bridge's window. As Keith looked, he saw a massive green jungle below him.  "Eh, this still looks like Jaburo..." he sighed. But he saw plumes of grey smoke ahead, and frowned. Meanwhile, James looked up from a control console, with a sleepy moan of  "Are we there yet?"

"Yes." both growled. James had been saying that repeatedly for nearly an hour last night, and it had driven them both crazy.

As the _Speranza_ flew over the base, all of them gasped. They'd expected at least some kind of welcoming party. What they found was smoking ruins and devastation, with only a few Federal mobile suits on some sort of patrol really noticing their arrival.

Taking care not to crush one of the surviving buildings, Tiff began to make the _Speranza_ descend. After a few seconds, it touched down among the burning wreckage.

Grimly, the three prepared to exit the ship...

_________________________________________________________________

As the three got off the ship, they were surrounded by surviving troops.

A young-looking one with blond hair and a bandana asked, "Are you the reinforcements? 'Cause if you are, you're damned early..."

Keith sighed. "There won't BE any reinforcements, I'm afraid... what happened here?"

A huge man with black dreadlocks stepped forward. "This huge metal spider just stomped through here two days ago and again last night, wrecking everything here! We tried to destroy it, but nothing we had could even scratch it! I think it's one of those new Zeon weapons... anyhow, how'd you know we won't get reinforced?"

Tiff sighed. This would not be easy news to break. "Jaburo's been destroyed. Two surface-piercing nuclear weapons were fired into the base..."

In unison, the survivors gasped. "Destroyed?! But... how can that be? Surely they'd stick to the Antarctic Treaty..." a young corporal with reddish-brown hair who looked far too young to even be in uniform muttered in disbelief.

Keith wore an expression of sorrow when he said, "Evidently not... I'm as surprised as you. That's why I deserted, and we've come to help you."

Tiff and James gasped. This was not in the plan, but evidently the members of the base were in desperate need. "Alright, you guys had better go see our commander." 

the boyish corporal said, and the three followed him into the wreckage of the base.

____________________________________________________________

The base commander turned out to be one Colonel Kojima, a middle-aged man with dark hair and a bushy moustache.

"Who are you and what d' you want?" he growled as the four entered.

"Corporal Michel Ninorich, sir. Three visitors to see you." the young corporal said.

"Good, Ninorich. Leave us, I'll want to talk to these three, I presume." Kojima said, and Michel walked off.

Keith looked around. This office was the few rooms to survive the attack, and although it was pretty dark, it didn't seem to be that uncomfortable a place.

"Right, sir. I'm Tiffany Patcher of the Medea Supply Corps, and these are James and Keith..." Tiff began, but was cut off by Keith, who interrupted with "We've come to help you, but after we've done that we'll need some of your men. It's an operation of vital importance to the Federation."

Kojima scowled. "And who do I place my men under the command of?" he hissed.

"Keith Holt, ex-Zeonic mobile suit pilot and the Odessa Avenger, who destroyed eleven mobile suits and one Big Tray battleship at that battle." Keith replied, with a grin on his face.

Kojima's jaw dropped. "The.. Odessa Avenger?!" he whispered. Quickly regaining his composure, he growled in a much louder voice, "No matter if he is a legend or no, I will not let my men be led by a Zeonic soldier! And unless you join the Federation properly, I will be forced to regard you as an enemy!"

Keith's face wore an expression of utter rage while his companions stood in shock. He hissed, in a voice that oozed anger far more than yelling could ever do, "So I can call you sir? Over my dead body, Kojima. I'll never take orders from you, and don't try and make me. Not only am I on your side, I have the Gundam and I'm the only help you've got. As for being an enemy, any soldier you send to defeat me will need either a hospital or a morgue when I'm finished with them."

Kojima's surprise escalated. This ace Zeon pilot had the Gundam? But how?

"Before you ask, Jaburo was nuked. I got caught in the blast but survived, and I managed to take the Gundam from the ruins. Kill any of us and you'll have destroyed the future of the Federation.. won't that be something to tell your grandchildren?" Keith said with a smirk.

Despite himself, Kojima was terrified. He could see there was no choice but to listen to Keith's plan, and there was no way he could hope to control this man or his power. Ordering someone to fight him would cause a huge brawl of sorts, one he knew his forces were too weak to try. "Alright... what do you propose that we do?" he said weakly, while secretly thinking, 'I sincerely hope he's really on our side'.

Keith smiled. "You have a problem, in the form of this massive metal spider, yeah? But something that damned big can't have many places to hide. So what you do, is you hunt it down and exterminate it."

"We can't do that! NONE of our mobile suits could even scratch its armour!" Kojima yelled. To his mind, this idea would be utter suicide.

"Ah, but that was before you had the Gundam." Keith chuckled. "Now that you have it on your side, I bet this Zeon metal spider will be no match for it."

Kojima gave up. This was the maddest plan he'd ever heard. Still, if what he'd heard of the Gundam's full capabilities were true, Keith's idea would probably work.

"Alright. You three will be fighting alongside the 08th MS Team, although all our forces will be used in this search-and-destroy operation. Go and get to know your new comrades for a while, we only have a few hours before we begin the attack." Kojima sighed.

_________________________________________________________________

As the three walked to the MS hangar to meet their new colleagues, Tiff began yelling at Keith. "What the hell did you start acting like that for?! He could have had you executed, just like that!" she shrieked. 

Keith coolly strode on, quietly answering, "I'm not taking orders from a pathetic fool like him... I bet he hasn't even seen true combat..."

"Whether he's seen combat or not isn't the point! He's still a higher rank!"

Keith stopped walking and turned to Tiff. "I don't care for ranks anymore. Now, I'll only take orders from those that can beat me, and I've never met anyone that good yet. Kojima doesn't even come close..." he growled. "And I'd love to see him try and have me killed, too. He knows I'd tear what's left of his base to bits if he slipped up once while trying that." Keith added, his tone slightly overconfident.  

Tiff sighed and started walking again, Keith following.

As they strode into the hangar, another Federation soldier with strangely-styled black hair noticed them and yelled, "Hey, here come the new guys!"

Almost immediately, four other people ran towards and crowded around the three new arrivals. Keith sighed as he recognised three of them. The only other he didn't was a strong-looking young lady with long red hair.

"We heard you were coming.. Need introductions?" she asked with a smirk on her face. "I'm Karen, and this is Eledore." she said as she yanked the blond bandana-wearer from earlier closer.

"OW! Dammit, Karen, that hurt!" whimpered Eledore, before adding "Um.. hi." to Keith.

Keith sighed. This bunch seemed to be the maddest yet. Suddenly, there was a loud squeal, and he turned to see Tiff squeezing young Michel (again, Keith, James and Tiff had seen him before, but Kojima had named him previously).

All others stood aghast, as Tiff resumed her mad bear-hug session.

Michel's whines and gasps for breath were drowned out by the ecstatic, giddy yells of "Oooooh, you're so cute!"

Finally, Tiff let go of Michel, who promptly flopped to the floor gasping for air.

Tiff blushed as she met the stares of just about everyone else around. "What? You have to admit it, he _is_ cute..." she said quietly, before wisely keeping quiet.

Keith sighed again, and helped Michel to his feet. "Sorry.." both he and Tiff said.

Michel just smiled and replied, "'S okay, as long as I can write.."

The young dark-haired man stepped forward. "I'm Shiro and this fella here's Terry," he said, pointing to the huge dreadlocked man from earlier.

Keith grinned. "Right, now that we know who each other is, let's get ready to kick some ass!"

Three trucks carrying one mobile suit each moved in. The first carried James' ground type Gundam, nearly identical to the ones already in the hangar as Keith noticed. Only a few differences were evident: A small antenna on the side of James' suit's head, and the number "10" on its shield.

The second carried Keith's silver Zaku, and the third..

"Whoa, mama!"

"Gundam? THE Gundam?"

"How the hell did that get here?"

Keith just grinned, as one of the tech officers driving a truck got out after delivering his MS and hopped into a nearby hover truck.

At once, Eledore ran over to the hover truck and rapped on the door. "Hey, what the heck d' you think you're doing?" he shouted.

"Orders. There's going to be a separation of hover trucks and mobile suit teams. This thing's goin' to some other bunch of hapless fools." came the reply.

James sighed. "Right... I think we should sort out who uses what mobile suit for the mission, yes?"

_________________________________________________________________

A few frenzied hours of work, discussion and eventually arguing had solved the trouble, and now the team had eight combat-ready machines.

Eledore was the one who lost out the most. All the mobile suits available had been taken, even the GM Ground Types, so he had been relegated to piloting a Fanfan hovercraft. Since he didn't really know how to pilot a mobile suit very well, he didn't take it too hard.

Shiro, Karen and Terry kept their own mobile suits, but somehow Michel was given James' old RX-79 Ground Gundam. Keith had suggested it, but James himself had agreed it was a clever idea. There probably was a simple reason why he wasn't so sad about it: he had the repaired Guncannon, fitted with a leftover Gundam beam rifle and a GM's shield.

Keith kept his Gundam for this mission, while Tiff was at the controls of his Commander Zaku. But by far the strangest machine was the one they didn't use:

The drive base of the scrapped Guntank. Modified with what remained of the original Guncannon beam rifle and a pair of large and boxy multi-missile launchers, the new machine had been christened by Tiff the "Space Tank". Quite generously, Kojima had allowed them to take a GM Ground Type's upgraded reactor and use it, ensuring the tank would have the capability to fire its weapons to the full.  Eledore had been asked whether he'd use the Space Tank instead but declined, saying he thought it'd get into heavier combat than he could handle.

All of a sudden, the alert sirens sounded, and Kojima's voice came through the intercom. "Brave men and women of the Federation, it's time to launch a counteroffensive. Our primary target is the huge metal spider that attacked this base recently. Find it, destroy it and any base it may be hiding in. This is a search-and-destroy operation, and it is of vast importance as all of our troops will be used. The fate of our planet may not be in our hands; still, our fate is. This is for this base and its personnel's very survival, and if you survive, some of you _will_ be vital to the Earth Federation. That's all. Good luck, now move out!"

Keith climbed into the Gundam and opened up the commu channel to all Federal units. "Alright, all of you: You heard the man, let's move!"

As other mobile suits staggered to their feet, and tanks and hover vehicles moved out,

Keith's own Gundam rose and moved forward, out of the hangar with his team following. As he did, he heard various battle cries and sayings over the com.

"Time to grease some Zeon slimeballs." 

"Kick the tires an' light the fires!"

"Soon they'll be tasting cold steel!"

"Let's get 'em!"

"Our Father, who art in Heaven.." 

"Don't fire 'til you see the glow of their camera eyes!"

Finally, Keith added his own in a loud voice, "Death to the Zabis! CHARGE!"

Hundreds of mobile suits, tanks and hover vehicles moved from the remains of Kojima Base. The Gundam was in the lead, closely followed by the silver Zaku and Shiro's easily-recognisable Ez8. Dozens of Jet Core Booster, Fly Manta, Toriares and even Sabrefish fighters zipped overhead, while even more Type-61 tanks and hover vehicles moved along to provide battle intelligence.

Almost immediately, Keith spotted a huge group of Zakus and other Zeonic machines further ahead. They didn't appear to be firing and one seemed to be carrying a white flag on the remains of a communications mast.

"What the..?" he said, just as the communication channel beeped. "This is Sergeant-Major Langley of the Anti-Zabi Rebellion. In the face of the Jaburo Incident, we hereby defect from Zeon to the Earth Federation."

"Really? I'm ex-Squad Leader Holt... I'm also fighting with the Federation."

"What?! Keith Holt? ...The Odessa Avenger? Wow..."

Just then, Keith got a call from one of the other Federal units. Shiro's face appeared on the screen. "What do you think we should do about these guys?" he asked.

Keith smiled. "Let 'em help us out a bit, of course," he answered, before switching communications back to Langley. "We need information. We want to find a huge mechanical spider-thing. Any of you guys know about it?"

"Wha? ...you mean the Tarantula? Why the heck do you wanna know where it is?"

"So we can destroy it."

"That's suicide!" Langley gasped. "I think it'd be a better idea to keep out of its way!"

Keith coughed. "You know who you're speaking to? You know what mobile suit he's in? Huh?"

"..."

"Then you won't mind helping us." Keith said with a grin.

"Alright, if you really wanna know... there's a base to the west. Keep going and you'll eventually hit it. It's near a mountain. Any other way I can help you? I don't like working for the Federation, but it'd beat helping those genocidal maniacs on our old side."

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	3. The Tarantula's Attack

(Author's Note: The Tarantula makes its appearance in this chapter, and by goodness, it's evil. Sorry, but one of the 08th MS Team becomes one of its victims in its violent rampage. I'll let you find out who it is... by the way, Keith gets one of the best lines in the story in this chapter. -^^-) 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

In Southeast Asia, our heroes have met up with the Kojima Battalion and agree to aid them if in return Kojima provides them with crew for the Speranza.

However, despite finding new allies, their mission still seems difficult...

_____________________________________________________________

Both Federation and Zeon forces stood, just outside Kojima Base.

"Alright, I got you your information. Any other way our forces can aid you?" Langley said from the cockpit of his Dom.

Keith smiled within the Lunar Titanium shell of his Gundam. "Sure... look after the base for us. Hopefully we'll be back."

"I doubt it, that damn Tarantula is one monster of a machine. We tried destroying it ourselves when we deserted, and we barely did any damage to the thing." Langley said sadly. "Good luck, anyhow."

"Alright. Shiro, call Kojima and tell him about the guys coming to protect the base. Let's move, people!" Keith yelled.

All at once, the massed Federation units of tanks, hover vehicles and even mobile suits began their trek west.

_____________________________________________________________________________

As the huge squads of mobile suits moved into the jungle, Keith and the rest of the mobile suit forces stopped. Around seventy Hover Trucks moved forward and found places to dig their sonar scanners into the ground. It was the only reliable way of locating mobile suits, as the emergence of transmission-jamming Minovsky particles had rendered most radar systems useless.

"We're doing great here! Let's just hope there's very few Zeon troops around here so we can get closer without too much hassle." James said over the comm.

"Even if there are, we probably outnumber and outpower them. Plus the jungle provides excellent cover, so they won't be able to find us so easily." Tiff replied from her borrowed Zaku Commander-type. 

"That's fine for tanks and hovercrafts, but what if the Zeons have sonar too?" Keith wondered.

"Our MS have more power, from what I've seen... which admittedly, isn't much.." Michel said slightly apologetically.

Keith noticed Michel's tone. "Kid, I don't blame you for staying out of a mobile suit.

The stuff I've seen and done in one of those things.... well, it shocks me even today."

"Then why did you give me the controls of your buddy's old Gundam?"

Keith sighed. "Whether you like it or not, you need some proper experience with these things. It seems we need all the help we can get now, and I think you were the best choice. Besides, the only other one was Eledore and no way would I let him take the controls of a Mobile Suit." he answered, with a grin on his face.

"Hey, I heard that!" came Eledore's mock-angry voice over the comm, and the whole of the 08th MS Team burst into laughter, as of course they knew Eledore didn't want a mobile suit anyway. Eventually, this was drowned out by the slightly nervous laughter of the rest of the Federal troops.

Suddenly, one of the sonar crew had found something which cut the laughter short.

"We've got something.. 23 degrees west... four mobile suits... no, eight..." said one of the crewmen over the comm.

"Right. Let's make 'em our first kills. Move in and engage!"

__________________________________________________________________

Federation mobile suits swarmed through the jungle to attack the enemy.

The Zeonic mobile suits, mostly Zakus, put up a fight but were rapidly overwhelmed by the attacking enemies.

Keith was the first to enter combat, quickly slicing a Zaku in two and shooting another with his beam rifle. After those two kills he quickly backed off, staying around Michel's Ground Gundam.

Bullets filled the jungle, and almost all the pilots could hear was the sound of gunfire.

Evidently there had been some reinforcements sent in.

Keith sighed. "Alright, let's keep going. Destroy the enemy as we go!"

At once, the Federal forces began moving through the jungle. However, there had been casualties on both sides, not just the Zeons'.

Two Type-61 tanks had been destroyed, and three GM Ground Types had been slightly damaged.

Still, the Federal machines and their pilots pressed on, with the occasional sound of gunfire as a stray Zaku or other mobile suit was found and taken care of. 

"Where the hell is the enemy?" Tiff wondered.

But after a while they advanced further, with little or no opposition to them.

"Eh.. why're you hanging around me?" Michel asked, after switching his commu systems to hail just the Gundam.

"...sorry.." Keith muttered, his face slightly reddening.

Afterwards, he moved towards the front of the marching MS.

As they neared the mountain, a huge, low rumbling noise was heard.

Suddenly, a quartet of Doms dashed past, firing a spread of bazooka shells. One by one, they hit Lunar Titanium armour and exploded. 

As a group of GM Ground types and even some Ground Gundams fell, Keith leapt after the now-fleeing Doms. Gritting his teeth, he repeatedly pumped the firing trigger.

One after the other, the beams found their mark, pierced the Doms' heavy armour and blew them apart.

__________________________________________________________

"Did you see that?!" Tiff yelled. To them, the Gundam had moved far quicker than it should, aiming its weapon and repeatedly firing, turning some of the best ground-combat mobile suits ever into so much tattered scrap.

Over the comm, she could hear Keith's triumphant scream of "Who else wants some?!" _Is this guy a Newtype? He's certainly fast enough to be.. _she thought to herself.

Only one Dom was left. It turned, tossed its bazooka aside, and with its mono-eye blazing, drew its heat sabre.

"Go, I'll deal with this guy!" Keith yelled into the comm, as the Gundam dropped its beam rifle and reached for its beam sabre.

"What? No, we can't leave you!" Tiff replied, her voice tinged with fright.

"I said go! I think I can beat him! I'll catch up later!"

Tiff considered arguing further, but decided against it. _There's a good chance he'll win, so why am I worrying? _

Still, that didn't erase her fears. "Alright, you heard him. Continue advance!" she said, just as the Dom moved forward, swiping at the Gundam with its heat sabre.

The Gundam leapt back, finally pulling its beam sabre from its backpack and hurriedly igniting it. "Alright, if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!" Keith growled, and he lunged.

The Dom quickly parried his attack, and retreated a little way. Keith moved the controls, and the Gundam leapt forward, its beam sabre in a downward slash.

The Dom was fast, but not fast enough. Its left arm had been sliced off, but it countered with a quick swing of its sabre.    

Keith desperately yanked the left arm controls, and the Gundam's shield swung around, blocking the attack though part of it melted a little in the process.

"Take THIS!" screamed Keith as he swung again with the beam sabre. The Dom had no other arm to defend itself with, and Keith's blow hit and sliced a huge hole in its side while it was trying to pull its heat sabre from the Gundam's shield.

The Dom fell to the ground and something inside it exploded, its heat sabre still stuck.

Smoke unfurled from gaps in its armour, and Keith replaced his beam sabre and literally ripped the heat sabre from his now-cooling shield.

He sighed. Like the older tanks, internal fires were the death of many mobile suit pilots. "Coulda' chosen a better way to go, man..." he muttered, as he picked up the beam rifle and hurried to rejoin his comrades...

___________________________________________________________________

As the Gundam rushed to catch up with the rest of the force, Tiff noticed a very large, light green shape moving at speed towards them. "...the hell?" she wondered.

All of a sudden, there was a cry of, "That's it! Attack!" over the comm, and as one the Federal mobile suits began a frenzied barrage with whatever long-range weapons they had to hand. 

This did next to nothing on the rapidly-approaching shape, and it responded by firing a huge burst of energy.

Over half of the remaining GM Ground Types were hit and seemed to evaporate in the spreading magenta glare of the mega particle cannon, and a series of explosions were heard.

"Evasive maneuvers!" screamed Shiro, as the horror bore down upon the survivors.

As the remaining units scattered, it screeched to a halt.

It was a titanic, terrible machine, with five machine gun turrets in each side of its body.

The huge mega-particle cannon was stored in its "head", and above it a large, malevolent mono-eye gazed at the Federal forces with a look almost like contempt.

As they watched in horror, the six "prongs" on the sides of its body unfolded and stretched, as sets of tank tracks retracted into them, it rose to its feet.

"The Tarantula..." whispered Eledore in awe.

All of a sudden, its machine guns opened fire, filling the area with lead.

Karen's "GM-Headed" Ground Gundam was noticeable among those running from this metal monster.

But the Tarantula had noticed her too. With one of its spider-like legs it slammed her into the ground. 

"Karen! No!" yelled Eledore, as he frantically pulled at the "Fire" trigger on his Fanfan.

Missiles smashed into the huge bulk of the Tarantula, but it seemed to shrug off the assault with barely a scratch. It almost lazily returned fire, with a single missile that slammed into the Fanfan's left hover-engine, forcing it to land.

Helplessly, Eledore watched as the Tarantula lifted its leg off Karen, and began charging its mega-particle cannon again.

Suddenly, it flipped Karen's damaged Gundam into the air with a kick, and almost in slow motion, Eledore heard her scream, just as it fired its mega-particle cannon.

Again, the huge beam of magenta death melted through a mobile suit, and Eledore screamed, "NO!" as the Gundam exploded in a large fireball.

Almost immediately, he slumped back into his cockpit sobbing.

Insane laughter echoed through the comlink, as whatever madman was inside the steel shell of the Tarantula gloated.

Just then, Keith finally charged through the jungle.

A familiar voice boomed at him from the Tarantula, "Gundam?! I thought Jaburo finished you... I'll remedy that!"

Keith scowled and yelled back, "Sceers, you were behind it?!"

Sceers laughed. "Keith?...Of course I was. I thought you were dead too.. have you allied yourself with these narrow-minded dregs of the Federation?"

"It's better than fighting alongside madmen like you!"

"Oh, is it?!" Sceers screamed in anger. "Well, I'll show you just how much damage a 'madman' can do!"

Missile pods slid out from the underside of the Tarantula and fired a spread of small missiles, but Keith knew something like this was coming and had hit the thrusters.

As a result, the Gundam leapt into the sky with the missiles closely following.

It then turned around in mid-air and just seemed to look at the missiles heading towards it.

_Now what do I do? I heard Gundam has some anti-aircraft or defensive weapon..._Keith wondered. Then he made a decision, stabbed a button, and to his surprise the twin vulcan guns in the Gundam's head fired. One by one, the missiles were hit by the spray of bullets and split apart, exploding as they did so. The Gundam dropped to earth, but with some maneuvering landed right on top of the Tarantula.

"What the hell...?" growled Sceers. Keith drew his beam sabre again, and began slicing into the heavy, thick armour.

The Tarantula flailed in an attempt to force the Gundam off its back. Though it slid, its attacker clung on to part of the Tarantula's body with one metal hand, stabbing and slowly melting the thick armour with the beam sabre in its other.

Keith gritted his teeth. "You're not gonna get away with killing my friends!" he screamed, and the Gundam used its arm to heave itself forward with a huge burst of speed.

As Keith landed, he stabbed downwards and by a sheer stroke of luck the beam sabre pierced the Tarantula's armour and plunged right down into the reactor.

Sceers yelled, and instantly the Tarantula exploded in a ball of flame even larger than its hulking form, the Gundam sent flying by the blast. 

With a smash and a skid, the Gundam landed onto the muddy and wet ground. Keith felt incredibly dizzy from the force of the blast, and as a result the Gundam seemed slightly shaky as it got up again.

"Well, that's that," he said, just before losing consiousness in the cockpit.

_________________________________________________________________

When Keith awoke, he found himself still in the Gundam. It was lying on its back and seemed to be moving horizontally.

Opening the cockpit, he climbed out. Standing on the Gundam's slightly scorched chest, he saw that the mobile suit was lying on a Federal truck in part of a convoy moving along a mountain road.

The wrecked Fanfan was on a truck in front, with several damaged GMs behind.

Grinning madly, Keith hopped back into the Gundam and began reactivating it.

He laughed to himself as the Gundam staggered to its feet, snapping the cables securing it to the truck and probably scaring the pants off the guy driving it.

Keith moved the controls, making the Gundam leap from the truck.

It landed heavily on the slope of the mountains, and with a little more movement it began picking up speed, sliding downwards.

_Such a shame I can't use the shield as a 'board,_ Keith thought with a chuckle.

From this height, he saw what appeared to be a small fire in the rapidly-darkening gloom... and something near it gleaming. _Is that them? _

"Only one way to find out!" he yelled aloud, hitting the thrusters and plummeting the rest of the way. 

As the Gundam neared the fire - which was definitely bigger than expected, obviously mobile suits had been used to gather timber for it -, Keith recognised the now slightly-dirtied silver of his old Zaku.

Gratefully, he spurred the Gundam to a halt, causing gouges in the turf.   

In the light of the fire, he saw what seemed to be a celebration by both Federal and Zeonic troops.

Mobile suits of both sides lay around the edge of the huge campfire, and there were only a few tents around. 

As the revellers noticed Keith and the Gundam's arrival, a huge, slightly rowdy cheer arose from the camp.

Moving the Gundam into a sitting position and climbing out, Keith was met by a massive crowd of his fellow troops, with most of the 08th MS Team, Tiff and James standing right in front of him.

"Brilliant! How on Earth did you do it?" shrieked Tiff, her face aglow with joy.

"By all the gods, that was incredible! You took out the Tarantula alone and you didn't even get a scratch! I saw you do it!" grinned James.

"You're friendly all of a sudden!" Keith laughed, playfully nudging James. "It was mostly luck, I had no clue the Gundam's vulcan guns could do that..." he confessed, a wide grin on his face.

"Designed for it? Man, they were MADE for that sort of thing! That, and teaching the Magellas who's boss!" James chuckled. "C'mon, luck or not, you're owed a drink!"

As Keith was good-naturedly yanked off to join the festivities, he couldn't help noticing the quiet sound of crying from somewhere outside the circle of firelight.

Despite victory, there were still those who had lost friends and loved ones.

__________________________________________________________________

"Anyhow, what happened after I destroyed the Tarantula?" Keith asked over a glass of ginger beer.

Even with victory assured for now, he really didn't like the idea of drinking. They'd probably be leaving for Luna II soon, and the utmost concentration would be needed.

"Well, we just kept on going. The Zeons mostly gave up after the Tarantula was destroyed, I guess they were too shocked to fight back.Then Langley ended up calling them..." James said, smirking.

"After a bit of a talk most of 'em ended up joining our side!" he laughed. Keith could smell alcohol on his breath.

"Oh, did Langley tell you how the base's doing?" Keith wryly wondered how Kojima would cope with a gang of ex-Zeon soldiers patrolling the base.

"Believe it or not, they HAVEN'T been at each other's throats. The guys at the base actually said we can leave tomorrow!" Tiff smiled.

"Really?! That's excellent news!" Keith exclaimed, almost leaping from his seat. "We head back to base tomorrow morning, yes?" 

"Sure.... but who'll help man it?" asked Tiff.

At once, a swarm of Federal soldiers crowded around the three, like children eager to be chosen. Keith coughed, and stood up.

"You think you're good enough to fight with us, or are you just aching for a change in the old routine?

 'Cause if you're going to come along, you'd better be the best. If we fail, the Federation is doomed. And I bet if the enemy get one sniff of what we're doing, they'll either send the _creme de la creme _of all MS pilots after us, or nuke Luna II.

That's what you're pledging to face if you come with us. Either Mobile Suit pilots capable of mass-murder without batting an eyelid, or the mother of all weapons. Still wanna come with us?"

At this dramatic speech, nearly all the Federal military stood aghast, 

shocked at these bleak prospects, before returning to their earlier merrymaking with an odd quietness about them.

Only the surviving members of the 08th and a handful of others still stood in front of the trio. Keith's idea had worked: with any luck, these would be the right people.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eh, gloom-inducing speech, but it's true. The war's coming down to the wire now, and just about anything's possible. Anyhow, audience, reviewers, everyone else, I give you this chapter with a Merry Christmas, and I swear I'll try and do the next chapter as quick as possible after the festivities (I'll be so busy during then!)!  -^^-;;;     


	4. Ascending into the Heavens

(Author's Note: There won't be any battles in this chapter, it'll be more plot and character development…  Hmm, I think I'm beginning to see a pattern in my own writing. And I've decided to reformat my chapters, so hopefully they won't look as hellishly ugly as they did before! -^^-;; 

Once again, excuse any OOC-ness. I haven't seen the 08th MS Team, 0079 or 0080 series, but these guys will be unrecognisable by the time I'm through! Bwahahaha!)

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With essential crew requirements met, the _Speranza prepares to leave for Luna II. _

All of the crew know they are the last hope for the desperate Federation...

_________________________________________________________

3rd December 0079

"Alright, all personnel reassigned to the _Speranza, get aboard and prepare for launch!"_

Keith's call into what remained of the base's intercom was heard, and the sound of rapid footsteps were heard even in Kojima's office.

Keith replaced the intercom microphone and looked at Kojima. "Look, I was out of line yesterday, and I'm sorry." he said to the older man.

Kojima looked up from a stack of singed documents. "No, it was my fault. I shouldn't have doubted you, though you could have got your point across a little less forcefully."

Keith grinned slightly sheepishly. "Oh, okay then. So, you'll be staying at this base?"

"I think not."

"What? You're coming with us?"

Kojima's face wore a sad smile. "Yes. According to what's left of the supply teams, my wife's been evacuated to Luna II. I'm worried in case something happens to her, so I suppose I'd best come along."

Keith was surprised at this. "Evacuation to a military base? Isn't that more 'out of the frying pan into the fire' than from danger into safety?"

"Not really. With the amount of Federal navy units there, Luna II is probably the safest place to be for us."

Keith smirked. "Evidently you guys didn't learn your lesson early on. The Zeon navy has mobile suits, remember?"

"Another reason for me to come. I may not be an expert, but I suppose I could try and think up some better strategies if I see these units firsthand again. Besides, you lot need a leader with experience around."

Keith chuckled. "Alright, but I think you're crazy. Still, we're going there to produce our own mobile suits anyhow."

"Definitely a good plan. If the enemy has something you don't, get one for yourself. One of the first things to know about war, and something we've been trying to do for quite a while. Anyhow, don't you think we should get aboard the ship ourselves?" Kojima asked, a twinkle in his eye.

Keith blushed, and Kojima laughed. "Come on then, let's get going!" he cackled, grinning.

____________________________________________________________

As Keith and Kojima scrambled aboard the _Speranza, they literally bumped into Shiro and two people neither had met before in their lives._

The first was a short, stocky man in a Zeonic uniform, who stood beside a beautiful young woman with short, whitish-blonde hair.

Shiro smiled. "Not much time for introductions, but this will have to do. This _wonderful_ lady here is Aina, and this fellow beside her is..."

"Packard, Norris Packard." the man answered, with a faked drawl in his tone. He grinned up at Keith, who chuckled, getting the obscure-but-still-known reference.

Shiro and the lady Aina raised an eyebrow as one, whereas Kojima just smiled.

As the five moved to the bridge, Shiro tapped Keith on the shoulder. "Look... I know you hate this war as much as the rest of us... so why are you coming along?"

Keith's face showed no emotion when he replied, "I got Sceers, right? But someone gave him orders. And someone else gave this someone orders. What I'm saying is, I want to find who's responsible for this at the top of the chain of command. Then I'll truly get my revenge. Besides, I don't want some green rookie trashing the Gundam."

"Oh..." Shiro said quietly.

Finally, Keith found himself in front of the door into the _Speranza_'s bridge. 

"At last, there you are!" Tiff yelled from the captain's chair. "We sent a message to a couple of guys in orbit, and they relayed it to Luna II. They're sending two prototype ships to escort when we exit the atmosphere!"

"Really? That's nice of them, let's hope they work properly... what the..?" Keith said.

A group of Ground GMs and assorted other mobile suits were visible from the bridge window, standing guard over the _Speranza._

A certain Ground Gundam was among those gathering to protect the ship...

Keith quickly pressed the COM button. "Michel, what're you doing?!"

"I thought we might need some cover to get out of the atmosphere, just in case..." came the answer, and Keith felt slightly guilty about shouting at him.

"Cover we may need, but you're supposed to be coming with us. You did volunteer, didn't you? And you can't be in two places at once, so..." Keith replied, a little more kindly than before. "Just get out of the Gundam and get on the ship."

"But.."

"We can't use the Ground Gundams where we're going. Best to leave them for others on our side to use. Before you know it, you'll probably get a new MS, so don't worry." "Oh, okay then.."

Keith turned back to Tiff. "Is this thing ready to rock?"

"Just a few more minutes, the engine room crew say it'll take a little while for it to warm up!"   

"Alright... Prepare to close all gangplanks and airlocks!" A shudder ran through the _Speranza_, just as a lone figure scrambled aboard. Slowly, the huge white bulk of the ship rose into the air and stopped, hovering.

"Minovsky Craft system online, engines readied, defensive systems online. All ahead, 40% power!"

Slowly at first, the ship began moving forward, then it tilted a little and climbed higher into the air, its engines flaming. Just then, Michel burst through the door into the bridge, gasping for air.

Keith smiled and gently patted Michel on the back as he flopped into a seat, breathing in deeply. "Well done! Just in time for us to get going, I see!"

"Increase engine power, 80%! We have to get out of the atmosphere now!" Tiff ordered, and nearly immediately the crew were slammed back into their seats by the huge increase in acceleration. Keith had to hold onto a railing in order not to be pinned against the wall behind him.

Clouds sped past as the _Speranza rushed through the sky. All of a sudden, there was a sensation of heat, a huge white flash and in a second all there was to see was the infinite dark nothingness of space, lit at a few points by the stars, tiny specks of light in the darkness._

Tiff sighed. "Alright... turn it back down to 50%. We've done it."

Keith felt the joy of being weightless once again, a sensation which was suddenly curbed when the _Speranza's internal artificial-gravity ring kicked in, its spinning ensuring none of the crew had to float aimlessly around._

A sudden realisation popped up in his mind. James, Michel and the others wouldn't know how to pilot well in space, would they?

"I think it's safe to say that this is the end of our operations on the ground." Tiff smiled.

"And this is the beginning of them in space. Suit up, guys, it's time I showed you what fighting in space is all about."

____________________________________________________________ 

After only a handful of minutes, a very small group had massed at the MS deck, with mixed feelings.

James was nursing a horrible hangover, Michel was becoming increasingly nervous about the whole thing, and Eledore had a certain grim, determined look on his face. 

"Right, you ALWAYS have to remember the basic rule of Mobile Suit piloting:

enemies can come at you anywhere. But in space, it's a lot more difficult to find, track and destroy a threat before they attack you or one of your colleagues." Keith explained, feeling a lot like one of the instructors back at the Zeonic Academy.

"So, I will show you how to move and locate targets better in space! Get in your mobile suit or weapon, and let's go!"

"But I don't have a Mobile Suit..." Michel complained.

"Ah, for now you can use one of the GMs. We only need one, but I would appreciate it if you could bring yours back intact. Right," Keith added as he turned back to the other pilots, "I'll launch first in Gundam! Go on, get in and move towards the catapult!"

Quickly, the pilots hopped into their machines. Keith, obviously, chose the Gundam, whereas James decided to operate Guncannon and Eledore was behind the wheel of the Space Tank for the first time. As Michel climbed into the GM's cockpit, Keith almost cursed himself for letting him use the weakest machine on the ship.    

Still, they didn't have much else...

_No time for thinking like that now. Remember, you've got to show an example to these guys._ Keith pushed at the movement controls, and the Gundam walked purposefully forward. Almost immediately after it entered the catapult area, clamps attached themselves to the Gundam's feet.

Keith opened the communications channel with him and the ship. "Right... Launch!" he yelled, and was rewarded when the Gundam shot forward, accelerating at a massive rate, heading straight for the _Speranza's open hatchway into the cold darkness that was space._

"Right, do what I do! James, you launch after me!" he said, only just remembering to activate the verniers before exiting the _Speranza_. "Oh, blast..." Keith groaned, realising that the Gundam was still configured for ground use. As the titan floated right in front of the catapult's range, he hurriedly flipped through the onboard combat computer systems, finally switching the Gundam into "Space Mode".

A split-second later, James hurtled from the catapult, and it was only now Keith noticed the repaired Guncannon's new arms had been painted black.

Just in time, he moved the Gundam sideways with two quick blasts of the verniers, and the Guncannon zipped past where he'd just been.

"Jeez, that was cuttin' it a bit close!" grinned James, before once again clutching at his head and letting out a moan of pain.

Keith laughed. "See? That's why I didn't bother drinking last night! Hey, hold on, use the thrusters to stop!" 

James sighed and hit the verniers again, causing Guncannon to slowly halt. "Oh, damn... it's still operating on the assumption it's on land!"

"Switch it over! I had the same problem earlier!"

After a short period of muttering and some cursing, the Guncannon adopted the same position that was used so often in space, rather than looking as though it was standing on nothingness. "There, I've done it." sighed James.

"Right. Michel, Eledore, switch to space mode before you launch!"

There was a sound of both pilots saying various variations of "yes", with Eledore's voice sounding strangely monotonous. Obviously Karen's death had hit the poor young man hard, and Keith made a mental note to try and comfort him sometime.

Immediately the red and greenish-white of the GM was visible against the background of space as it launched, closely followed by the dark green of the Space Tank. 

"Michel, how's the movement in space going?" Keith asked into the comm.

"Not too well, I don't know much on the GM's controls." came the answer.

"Hmmm..." The GM wasn't too dissimilar from Gundam, was it? Maybe he could use his suit as an example.

"The control sticks are for using the arms, the pedals are for movement. Hitting both pedals will use all the verniers and move you forwards, using the left one will turn you to the right and vice-versa. I'll give you a diagram later." 

"Okay, thanks!" Michel said back into the comm.

And thus the space practice began, at first the three learners moved slowly and found it hard to dodge when Keith came speeding past, but eventually all were zooming joyfully through the eternal night.  

"Ha-ha! Wonderful!" grinned James as he zipped right over the Space Tank.

Only one of the pilots wasn't moving very much. Keith just sat, weightless in the Gundam with only the straps holding him in his seat, looking at the Earth.

"...how beautiful the Earth looks from up here..." he whispered. Indeed, it was wonderful-looking. It was easy to forget the devastation the planet had suffered through up here, its pattern of cloud, water and land making it look a little like an oversized marble. Even the biggest explosive would only cause a small mark on the beauty of the world. 

But, wait... wasn't that a little mark just there? It seemed to be getting bigger to Keith's eyes. A little hurriedly, he pressed the "Image Enhance/Zoom" button.

A familiar wedge shape came into view...A Magellan-class battleship! No, two of them! Keith had to fight the urge to fire on them straight away.

The communications line opened, and the visual window appeared in a corner on the front cockpit screen, showing a red-haired and harassed-looking young man in a Federation uniform. His rank badge was that of a captain's.

"Where the hell have you guys been?! We've been searching all over Earth orbit for you!" he smirked. 

"Aha, we more or less just launched... you're our escorts, correct?" replied Keith coolly.

"Yeah. Captain Kawada of the Magellan battleship _Osiris, here to assist!"_

Kawada grinned and pulled a nearly-theatrical salute, which Keith nearly chuckled at.

"And your friend is...?"

"Oh, the other ship. That's the _Anubis, under the command of Captain Miyahara."_

"Excuse me, but I heard two prototype ships were heading out to escort us, not two beat-up old Magellans!"

"Beat-up old Magellan? You haven't looked at our hull properly, have you, Mr. Holt? Go, on have a look." Kawada said with a good-natured laugh.

Keith looked. A massive, elongated tube was attached to the front of the _Osiris_, replacing the two top mega particle cannons. The very end of this tubing was just under the bridge.

"That, my friend, is possibly the heaviest weapon used by the Federal fleet. It's a railgun, huge modifications had to be done to this ship in order for it to be used."

"A railgun...?" Keith could barely have imagined this could happen. The only real use of railguns earlier in the war was when hundreds of them were Earth's last line of defense against the colony drops, using electricity and a system of magnets to fire shells at massive speeds, capable of punching holes in thousands of tonnes of metal. If Kawada wasn't lying and his Magellan was carrying one, then... 

"Powerful, eh? C'mon, you guys had best return to the ship. Then you'd best follow us."

"Alright. All mobile suits, return to the ship. We're finally going to Luna II."

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Can anybody say "Eeek"? And _yes_, the name Kawada is a reference to the film Battle Royale. Hey, you didn't complain at the Evangelion reference (Langley)! ^_^

Sorry this chapter took so long... but expect delays with the next one too, I'm going back to school again soon. *sigh* 

Oh, and there's going to be ANOTHER new Federal secret weapon at Luna II, one that's going to have a massive role later.

Here's a hint: It was only built in light of the tearing-up of the Antarctic Treaty.  


	5. Luna II

(Author's Note: The guys are finally (more or less) at Luna II! Hurray. 

Sooner or later that mysterious deadly weapon will be revealed, but before then...

Well, enjoy! And review more! I want OPINIONS! Or else the chicken gets it. o.o)

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After meeting up with the experimental _Osiris and __Anubis battleships, the _Speranza_ continues on its journey to Luna II. Now within sight of the colossal last fortress of the Federation, Keith and company are closer to their goal than ever..._

______________________________________________________________

"He what?"

"I tell you, the guy told me he was married!"

A slightly bizarre discussion was unfolding in the canteen of the _Speranza_.

Keith hungrily bit into a hurriedly-cooked and slightly burnt burger (he'd had to cook it himself, seeing as there was no assigned chef aboard the ship yet) while James spoke again.

"I tell you, if he's married then I'm a jam doughnut. Kojima's probably hell to live with, I thought you knew that. He hates being on this ship because he has some kind of problem with the air systems, and...well, he's _old_."

"Hey, don't diss the man!" Keith replied hotly. "He's not that bad of a bloke, once you get to know him. And if you ask me, grudges with air conditioning systems are a pretty pathetic excuse to dislike a guy."

"Yeah, and being past forty doesn't make you a matrimonial hot potato!" Tiff chipped in, looking up from a bowl of steaming spaghetti. James wisely decided to shut up at this point.

Keith sighed and smirked, before getting up and moving to another table, where Michel sat alone. The young man slouched in his seat, forlornly chewing little handfuls of some small potato things from a bowl in front of him. Depressed? Keith hoped not, he thought there was more than enough depression on this ship as it was.

"What's up there, little fella?" he said, a fraction too cheerily.

"Don't call me that, I'm only a year younger than you." came the reply.

Keith mentally slapped himself. He should have known Michel couldn't be that young! "Sorry. Erm..anyhow, what's up? Anything wrong?"

Michel sighed. "Yeah..." "Care to tell me about it?" 

"It's sort of personal. Do I have to?" "Of course not, but it's easier to work through problems with someone else to help you. At least, that's my opinion."

"Oh, okay then. No sense in keeping it to myself in times like these... I have a girlfriend.." Michel began, blushing slightly.

"That's it?"

"No! Sh-she lives on one of the colonies, while I was sent down to Earth. Since then, I always kept in touch with letters. But since the Tarantula was first spotted, the Federation post have been too scared to come close enough to pick up our letters, and since Kojima Base was lost... she's always been scared of me dying out there, and she once said me being away's putting a huge strain on our relationship..." Michel's voice took on a slight wailing quality, and tailed off.

Keith sighed, and placed a hand on Michel's shoulder in what he hoped would be a comforting way. "Listen. From what I hear, nine times out of ten, if someone just leaves you because you're away a lot they probably weren't right for you in the first place. As for the other thing, while I'm around I'll make sure nobody can get at you till you make it back with your girl... okay?" 

This had the exact effect Keith wanted: Michel smiled up at him, with a quiet "thanks.."

Both smiled, just as the intercom erupted in noise. "You'll be happy to know we're now within sight of Luna II! In a matter of hours, we'll be ready to land and disembark!" the voice of Kojima boomed.

______________________________________________________________

Keith hurried into the bridge, his half-eaten burger still in his hand and a tail of curious Federation officers behind him. A great sight confronted him the moment he opened the door.

The titanic, crater-pockmarked rock of Luna II was practically in front of the ship.

Some larger craters had been used to house hangars and entryways, others were just too small or in the wrong location and left alone.

"Impressive, ne? I'll call the guys and tell 'em we're here!" Kawada chirped over the comm unit.

"...Yeah..." Keith answered, in a voice barely above a whisper. He'd only had a glimpse of an asteroid base before, when he passed the Zeonic base of Solomon on the way to the Earth, but he'd never really seen one up close.

Kojima grinned from his seat on the bridge. "And to think a few days ago you had no idea of what us Feddies were capable of!" he said with a laugh.

Keith grinned weakly back at him, before grabbing the videophone/comm handset. "Well? Do we have permission to land?" he growled into it.

"Yeah. Head for Bay 6." Kawada returned. "And ask 'em to show you what they've been cooking up recently..."

"What, aside from your overgrown artillery?"

"Of course! What you have to understand is the railgun does use some mobile suit technology. The magnetic rods are Luna Titanium coated in..." Kawada began, before being cut off by a transmission from inside Luna II.

"_Speranza_, dock and prepare for inspection." came the shaking voice of a tired and desperate-looking Federal officer. _My God, is this what the Federation's reduced to? _Keith wondered to himself.

________________________________________________________________

Upon landing, only a little group of Federal officials stood in the colossal titanium-coated steel docking bay to greet the crew.

As people almost literally poured from the airlocks and hatchways, Keith noticed that one of the officers waiting for them was the exact same one who ordered the _Speranza_ to dock.

"Right! Who's the captain of this ship?" he barked, which caused many blank looks from the assembled crew members. Finally, Tiff spoke up. 

"Acting Captain Tiffany Patcher here, sir."

"Acting Captain? What, was the original captain injured or killed?"

Keith moved forward. "We don't stand on rank here, Commander... Wakkein," he began, after taking a short amount of time to examine the man's rank and name badge,

"so we have no real captain. Most of what you'd call "commanding officers" are pretty low down on the actual rank scale, but we've managed to pull together. Now, the mobile suits you want are in the launch bay of the ship. James, go open the hatches."

As James hurried to do so, Keith turned back to Wakkein. "One of our escorting captains says that you've got something special hidden on this base. Care to show me what it is?"

"Well, we have two little surprises that you down on Earth were unaware of. But you'd have to ask the people down at Mobile Suit R&D..."

Keith's expression changed from mild puzzlement into undiluted fury. "You have mobile suits here?! And yet you let your people suffer and die back down on Earth, while you sit back here and tinker with your little technological toys?"

"These suits are prototypes! They were never designed for Earth use!"

"That never stopped the Zeons from sending their Zakus down to take over, did it?" 

Wakkein immediately was silent, having no counterargument. Keith's eyes narrowed.

"Get those GMs mass-produced, and send them down to Earth as fast as possible.

Every day, every hour counts now, because of all this sloppiness, this... _indifference_. That's the whole reason the war started, too! People on Earth didn't care for the colonists enough."

Wakkein's face was suddenly a lot more pale. "Alright... but first, I'll go introduce you to the head on R&D in this base. Follow me." 

_____________________________________________________________________

Whatever Keith had expected from a Federation mobile suit developer, the person Wakkein led him to was definitely didn't look like it.

A long mane of red hair framed a slightly freckled, girlish-looking face. Bright blue eyes shone at him from beneath a pair of clear, squarish goggles. The rest of this....person's attire and looks weren't too out of the ordinary: whoever it was wore standard overalls with the Federal logo on them, and scuffed and grease-blackened trainers.

"You probably get this a lot, but I have one question: are you a boy or a girl?" Keith asked, blushing slightly.

To his surprise, the person stepped angrily forward and slapped him across the face.

"I'm a guy! Good God, everyone that ever meets me nowadays asks the same damned question!" the boy sighed, while Keith rubbed his bruised cheek. "Argh...So not only do you have a girly kid as your R&D head, it's a violent girly kid in need of anger management..." he muttered, for which the boy slapped him on his other cheek.

"He was the only person we could find just after the One Week War; besides, he's a veritable genius. Keith, meet Ken. Ken, meet Keith." Wakkein replied, with a look of exasperation on his unshaven face.

Keith sighed, and reluctantly shook hands with Ken, who smiled back at him and mouthed a  "Sorry". 

After a few seconds that seemed to pass like eternity, the two's hands separated.  "C'mon, I'll show you around." Ken said, smiling.

____________________________________________________________________

After walking for a few minutes through the seemingly endless corridors, the duo (Wakkein left them earlier, saying he needed to get on with supervising the GM analysis and production) came to a huge, long bay.

Although the end of it was closed off for some reason (top-secret? Keith wondered about this sort of thing), the left-hand side area of the bay was crammed with mobile suits. Two or three looked like more angular, deadlier-looking GMs, but further on down the line was something different that he couldn't quite make out.

Keith had heard rumours that the Federation had some secret weapon that was the bane of all Zeon fleet units headed towards Earth. Some had said the Feddies had used intruding ships and carriers as targets for testing of new weapons, although the official line was that they were engaged and sunk by Federal cruisers.

"Were these suits used in any way on Zeon forces?" he asked.

"Yeah, but only to test 'em out. We had to get data for our own set of mobile suits, though they said Jaburo would lead in Federal MS development and they'd send us suits to mass-produce for ourselves."

"I suppose that's happened." Keith smiled. "So this is just a sort of hobby of Luna II's, then? Create experimental suits while the guys on Earth do most of the work?"

Ken frowned. "No, they're meant to serve as defensive units too. We had to have some sort of defense, ever since Char attacked this base a few months ago."

"Oh... well, tell me about these suits."

"Well, the red and whitish-green ones are the GM E-types, which were the ones tested on Zeon forces. They're based on the Gundam more than what you brought in, I think." Ken said, as they walked along the bay. "A bit faster and better-armoured, but underneath the shell they aren't that different from each other. I suppose most of our suits are like that.."

As they moved along, Keith could see the final suit at the end more and more clearly.

It looked a lot like a standard GM but it, like the rest, had differences.

Lighter, more curved, with no beam sabre jutting out of its backpack and with odd little grooves in its skirt and leg armour, it had a slightly more fearsome look and feel to it for some reason...

"This is more based on the Gundam than any other suit we've designed... no, I tell a lie, this is more its own design. It's probably faster and more maneuverable than our ordinary prototypes, though we haven't tested it yet."

"And it is...?"

"The GM Command-model. Like I said, we had it designed to be more efficient than the ordinary GM, though we also have some modular construction capabilities built into it. See the backpack? In a matter of about an hour you can replace that and a few other parts for ones with added vernier engines, all the better for space combat."

"But you don't know if it works." Keith reminded Ken.

"I think it will. After all, I was head of the project that turned out this baby." the boy coolly replied.

Keith had a sudden thought. The Federation had lost so many soldiers and pilots, its ordinary tactics of numerical superiority would result in horrific slaughter and catastrophic losses. Maybe this GM type could help even the odds...

Suddenly, a series of explosions rocked the whole base, followed by the sound of gunfire and yet more blasts.

"Oh, god, no..." Ken moaned. "Please don't let it be them!"

Keith knew different. The Zeons had come to try and stop them at last.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

DUN DUN DUUUUN!! ^^ What next chapter, eh? Well, let's just say fans of MSV might be pleasantly surprised...

Shout-outs:

To Arkbot-dude: I'm sorry for being such an argumentative little annoyance. But hey, thanks for pointing out my mistakes as well. I'm re-writing old chapters and I'll put them up once the fic's done. It shall be called... Federation's End - Author's Cut! (evil laugh) o_o

To Scott-dude: Thanks for supporting me and helping me out with info, man. And I hope you're enjoying the fic so far. I'm looking forward to your views on what should happen next episo-erm, I mean chapter. -^^-;;;

To Everybody In General who likes this fic: Review, please! PLEEASSSEE! Oh, and I might write an 08th MS Team-style side story titled The Glorious 20th, detailing what's going on Earthside. Should I? As usual, opinions are always listened to! ^_^  

By the way... why's nobody screaming in terror about the _Osiris _yet? Well, you might have cause to... it's going to get its "baptism of fire" and show off its power next chapter! Muahahaha!        


	6. Assault on Luna II

(Author's Note: There's going to be no real "the story so far" prelude in this chapter... just straight into the action. And like I said, MSV fans won't be too disappointed. But I forgot to mention, neither will those of 0083.)

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"Red Alert, Red Alert, the base is under attack. All pilots, gunners and combat personnel, to your stations."

Explosions rocked Luna II as the attack began. Keith looked around desperately as pilots swarmed into the bay, climbed into their suits and prepared for battle.

"Dammit!" he yelled, running back towards the _Speranza_'s docking bay. Ken quickly followed, as soon after the MS bay opened and the amassed GM prototypes marched out to face the enemy.

As Keith sprinted towards the ship, he saw from several windows the utter carnage going on outside. Around three Musais, flanked by a pair of Chivvays, had arrived and were blasting anything in sight with their particle cannons, while the GMs launched in defense of the base were busy in a huge, desperate melee with squads of Zakus.

_Only three Musais? I thought there'd be more..._ he thought as he finally reached his destination.  As the two got closer, Keith saw that the _Speranza _and its docking bay were a literal hive of activity.

Gunners frantically manned hulking gatling-gun turrets, whereas most of the pilots that had come to Luna II alongside him were waiting for his arrival.

James grinned at him. "Looks like I'll be able to show you my moves after all!" he smirked.

"Save your breath, you'll probably need it. Tiff! Is the Gundam ready?" Keith shouted, between gasps of air.

"It might be... oh, my god.." Tiff gasped.

"What?"

"...The Gundam's out of fuel. Looks like we over-did it back on Earth. And as you probably know, in space no fuel means no mobile suit..."

"DAMN!"

"I think I have an idea." Ken piped up. "There's something in storage that could be useful.."

"What is it? Tell me, quick, we don't have time!" Keith shouted.

"There was a prototype made before the Gundam you use. It was originally designed for just close-combat, so we never attached any guns to it aside from the ones built in.

It's the RX-78-1."

"Get it, quickly. Actually, no, just tell me where it's stored, I'll get it myself."

________________________________________________________________

Keith entered the darkened warehouse block, and saw the RX-78-1 for the first time.

It looked almost exactly the same as his own Gundam, aside from its black and white paint job, slightly thinner forearms and little slits in the foot armour. Somehow, he knew the internal framework would be similar enough.

Climbing into the prototype Gundam, Keith quickly flipped the internal controls on.

_Startup sequence's the same... for all intents and purposes, this is basically the same as my own Gundam..._

Vapour puffed from vents in the Gundam's chest as it clambered to its feet. 

_Right... now to get this thing out to fight... _Keith thought to himself as he carefully pushed the movement controls. Slowly so as not to damage anything else in storage, the RX-78-1 began moving out, heading for any exit its pilot could find.

__________________________________________________________________

"Open the docking bays! All gunners, fire at will. I repeat, fire at will!"

Kojima had been reunited with his wife in the hours before the attack, but it hadn't lasted long. The crew of the _Speranza had to watch as this gentle-looking lady scrambled for cover with tears in her eyes, while her spouse manned his post with a strange, stony determined expression._

The docking bay doors slowly opened, releasing air pressure. A Zaku leapt through the widening opening and was instantly turned into a heap of molten metal from a shot fired by one of the ship's mega particle turrets. But more came.

"Dammit, those things are too fast! We can't keep firing forever, and at this rate we'll be toast pretty soon!" screamed one of the gunners into the intercom. Tiff sighed. "The gunners are reporting. Ammo's getting low and we aren't hitting the targets enough. What the hell do we do?"

For once, Kojima seemed at a loss. _I suppose Keith was right... he thought as the sounds of blasts echoed around the bridge. Suddenly, almost the entire troop of MS pilots hurried in._

"We can't just stand around while people are dying! Permission to launch?" Shiro yelled.

Tiff smiled. "I suppose we can't wait for Keith forever. Get to your suits and get out there, we can't wait any longer!"

"Wait, we haven't sorted out who's going to pilot what!"

"Use whatever you used before! We don't have time!" Tiff shrieked, on the verge of panic.

"But I... ah, whatever, I'll find something..." Norris sighed, and the pilots scrambled out, heading for the MS deck.

_____________________________________________________________

The Guncannon leapt out onto the soil and rock of Luna II first, and began a horrifying, relentless barrage of beam rifle and cannon fire.

Any enemy suit unlucky enough to stray into its line of fire was torn apart, whereas the lucky ones just disappeared as they suffered critical damage and exploded.

James narrowed his eyes. Zakus were falling one by one, a few had the guts to fire on him but soon found standard machine gun shells could barely even scratch Luna Titanium. The only real danger was if a Zaku could get close... Heat hawks weren't that effective, but with a bit of work could cut into the Guncannon's armour.

Plus, James would have a job forcing the attacker back if they did, as his suit wasn't a particularly efficient close-combat performer.

Suddenly, the welcome whistling of cannon shells was replaced by a harsh click.

"Dammit! Out of ammo!" James growled. Desperately, he yanked the firing trigger again. Same response.    

Most of the Zaku pilots were stupid enough to keep shooting (or bright enough to stay back, depending on your views), but one moved forward. Tossing aside its machine gun, it grabbed a heat hawk from its waist and stood motionless for a few seconds while the battery fed energy to the blade.

James' eyes widened in horror and fear. Just as the blade glowed a yellowy-white with heat, the Zaku charged. _I don't wanna die... I don't wanna die... _

As the vaguely insectoid monstrosity prepared to strike a damaging blow to the Guncannon's tough armour, James panicked. Screaming a curse, he wrenched at the arm controls, and there was an ear-splitting clang as the Zaku was smashed backwards, the blow lifting it off its feet.

"I'm not quite ready to die YET, asshole!" James yelled, as the Zaku struggled to get up, only to find its opponent standing right over it. Stabbing a button, James watched with a grim satisfaction as his aggressor was peppered with vulcan bullets and forced to stay down.

Another Zaku leapt at him, but with a single movement of the controls on James' part the Guncannon easily swatted it aside, sending it hurtling away into oblivion.

_Oh, dammit... I can't hold them off forever with no ammo..._ The constant rattling of the machine gun fire on the Guncannon's armour indicated that, little by little, the Zakus were chipping away at his defenses.

Suddenly, a titanic explosion erupted from the side of Luna II and ..._something_ happened to two of the Zakus. In a split-second, they were cut in half, and stayed in the same position for another second before violently exploding.

____________________________________________________________

"It's the Gundam! I can't stop it! It's invincible!!" screamed a terrified Zaku pilot as the RX-78-1 bore down upon it.

"You could have just ran away..." Keith said sadly, just before slicing open the Zaku and triggering another explosion as its own reactor blew it apart.

James' face appeared on his commu-monitor, grinning. "Am I glad you're here... did we get them all?"

Suddenly a bazooka round thudded into the prototype Gundam's shield and blew up, knocking it over and blowing off half its shield. "No." replied Keith as the Gundam rose up to face this bazooka-wielding Zaku.

_Remember, get in close..._ This guy was good! He wasn't going to let Keith get close enough to kill him, but every time the Gundam tried to get nearer the Zaku backed off, firing another bazooka shot to force it back.

 "Hah!" The Gundam leapt, heading straight for its opponent. The Zaku fired again--

--and a burst of vulcan gun fire blew up its bazooka shell, knocking it backwards at the same time.

"Not such a smart-aleck NOW, are you!?" Keith growled as he pulled at the controls, expertly slicing off the Zaku's right arm. It slowly fell to the ground, still holding its bazooka. 

Just as Keith prepared to deliver the killing blow to his enemy, something silvery slammed into the Zaku, and it was sent spiralling backwards.

"...the hell?!"

The silver blur slowed down, revealing itself as Keith's old Zaku, still gleaming and with its trusty machine gun in one hand, its heat hawk in the other. "Didn't expect me?" laughed Norris, just before decapitating his machine's green twin.

"Not at all..." Keith grinned, as he activated the manual hand controls and wrenched the bazooka from the green Zaku's disembodied arm.

______________________________________________________________

"Sir! We're losing Zakus, they're dropping like flies! And from what few transmissions we're getting, the Feddies have mobile suits out!" 

"Don't be too pessimistic about it. Launch the new space-type mobile suits."

______________________________________________________________       

"Looks like we're winning... why the hell haven't they nuked us yet?" James asked.

"I have no idea... but let's take out those ships before they decide it's a good idea to try!" yelled Keith, hitting the Gundam's thrust engine controls. At once, he was rammed back into his seat as the RX-78-1 leapt forward, taking off from the barren rock and heading straight for one of the Chivvays.

The Chivvay's gun crews opened fire frantically as this metal monster hurtled towards them, but it seemed to maneuver far too quickly. Bullets flew past inches from its body, yet none of them ever seemed to hit.

"Die, you heap of scrap!" screamed Keith, bringing his beam sabre down in one almighty slash, annihilating almost all the Chivvay's port defensive turrets in a single attack.

The two surviving turrets beneath him began firing, but they were almost immediately silenced with a kick that crushed them both in a mangled mess. "Norris, get the bridge!" commanded Keith. Deep inside, James smirked at this. _Let's see how they like pitting battleships against mobile suits for a change!_ he thought to himself.

The two only just managed to hear the affirmation "Righty" before the silver Zaku leapt into the task, slicing off the barrels of the ship's front mega particle guns with a sweep of its heat hawk, before returning the deadly device to its hip armour and gripping its machine gun with both hands. 

Keith admired, in a slightly macabre way, how Norris spent about a second steadying his aim (and terrifying the bridge crew) before opening fire with a deadly stream of 120mm bullets and sending the Chivvay to the astrological equivalent of Davy Jones' locker.

As the stricken ship lurched back in its death throes, its hull shuddering with multiple explosions as one by one its systems failed, Keith noticed a large shape launch from one of the Musais. Closely followed by two others, these bulky shadows landed on the surface of Luna II...

____________________________________________________________

"Engines ready?"

"Yessir."

"Railgun charged?"

"Yessir."

"Alright. Now to show these Zeeks a real reason to back off!"

______________________________________________________________

"What the hell!? A Dom? How on earth do those things work in space?"

"My god, it's fast... ARRGH!"

Explosions were heard as the new Rick Doms began their attack, destroying GMs left and right. The GMs fought back fiercely, but none of their pilots had the experience or the skill to fight off these new, highly-mobile foes.

Anavel Gato smirked as he pulled the firing trigger, blowing a GM into nothingness with a heavy bazooka shell. _Damned Feddies... They think they can stop us?!_

All of a sudden, another bazooka shot slammed into one of his wingmen, the blast tearing it apart with blackened and twisted remnants of its armour hurtling from the force of the explosion. __

Gato's Rick Dom was knocked sideways by a flying chunk of metal from its doomed brethren. As his machine climbed back onto its feet, Gato looked straight into the eyes of the prototype Gundam, a stolen Zaku bazooka clamped tightly in one metal hand, a beam sabre held aloft in the other.

"Finally, a challenge!" Gato said, mostly to himself to hide his mounting fear. This thing was capable of almost anything...

Quick as a flash, he pressed the firing trigger again. A bazooka shell shot towards his black-and-white foe...

... and almost immediately it fired a shot of its own. Both shells met in a massive fireball, but Gato saw the rapidly-approaching death machine rocket towards him through the flames and rushed to meet it.

Both mobile suits lunged in a rapid melee, sabres out. Blade met blade in a frantic dance of parries, stabs, blocks and slashes, as sparks flew from every contact they made. Finally, the Gundam found an opening, one that Gato could just barely defend. Easily pummelling his rushed parry aside, the Gundam's powerful stroke sent his Rick Dom flying, where it smashed into the side of a crater on the asteroid.

_________________________________________________________________

Keith gasped and panted for breath, slumping back in the RX-78-1's cockpit.

Sweat dripped down his brow, as he silently congratulated himself. But somehow, he couldn't shake the feeling that the Gundam was...somehow _slower _than it used to be.

_Probably the prototype wasn't meant for this,_ he thought to himself.

Kawada's smiling face appeared on his commu screen. "Leave the ships to us, yeah? Oh, and if you can, make some popcorn inside that thing and watch the fireworks!" he said with a laugh.

Keith was just about to reply, but the _Osiris'__ transmission was cut off by another._

"Listen here, you Fed bastard... I'm not done with you yet!"

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Erm.... just review, please? -^^- And I'm sorry the _Osiris didn't kick some arse this chapter... but I promise it will next time! _


	7. Keith Vs Gato

(Author's Note: Well, here goes!)

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The Rick Dom leapt from its crater, mono-eye ablaze with light.

Gato's own eyes were narrowed with rage. _How **dare** this scum do this!_

Quickly closing in on the Gundam, he lunged -

___________________________________________________

Keith felt the Gundam respond to his controls, leaping backwards and narrowly escaping the Rick Dom's attack. "Idiot!" he yelled, yanking on the trigger again and watching as the bazooka shell sailed towards its target.

Swiftly, the Rick Dom swung its heat sabre upwards, striking the bazooka shell with its tip and turning a potentially deadly object into so much shrapnel pattering its heavy body.

"You coward... face me like a man, why don't you!?" screamed his opponent through the comm.    

"Bring it on!"

Keith deactivated the auto-grip, and watched as the bazooka fell from the Gundam's hand, slowly dropping onto the ground.

Instead of doing the same, the Rick Dom charged forward, heat sabre aloft.

"Rule number one, kid! Never trust your enemy!" shouted Gato, moving in for the kill with both bazooka and sabre readied.

"Think I don't know that?"

As the distance between the two was steadily closed, Keith prepared the beam sabre in his suit's left hand. _The power of explosive weapons is also their greatest weakness..._

"Eat this!" Just as Gato was about to attack, the Gundam rammed its beam sabre straight into the barrel of its foe's bazooka.

The result was one almighty fireball, the destruction of the Rick Dom's bazooka catapulting both suits away from each other. Keith noticed through the flames that the Rick Dom's right arm was now utterly mangled, little more than an immobile, twisted lump of steel.

"Goddammit, you Feddie bastard!" screamed Gato, in rage and frustration.

"Hah... Rule number two: Don't go into battle with a superior enemy incautiously!" Keith laughed.

"What the hell makes someone like _you superior to me?!" _

"Let's just say you're fighting a veritable legend among Zeon ground forces - the Odessa Avenger."

___________________________________________________________ 

Back on the _Speranza_, Eledore dully watched the Guncannon re-enter Luna II for ammunition and repair. Several dents were visible in its red chest, but the arms had taken much worse. Being of lesser strength due to their standard titanium construction, they were slightly scorched, the burns glistening on the black paint job.

"Oh well, I suppose I'll have to find some other GM to take repairs from." smirked James over the comm.

Suddenly, something came to Eledore. Why was he sitting here? _People like those outside were the reason Karen died. You know the suffering they're capable of causing. You know they deserve to die. Go and fight like the rest of the crew, _whispered part of his mind, one that couldn't forget. One that despised all the cruelty that had been meted out to Eledore on that day... 

His conscience agreed, but for a different reason. _You can't just leave the fighting to everyone else, people are dying out there -_

The dark, vengeful part of his mind whispered again: _Avenge Karen._

_But she wouldn't want you to go and get yourself killed for no reason-_

_She's already DEAD! This IS a reason! _

Eledore's mind was suddenly clear. These... these scumbags, they and people like them were the reason for the war, the reason for all the pain, all the suffering.

They were the reason he was alone in the world. 

_I ought to at least do something good in my life... something to try and right the wrongs..._

He was decided. Eledore got up, grabbed a space suit and headed for the launch bays.

________________________________________________________________ 

"The Avenger? YOU?!" shrieked Gato over the comm, now cautiously keeping his distance from the RX-78-1.

"Not what you were expecting, was it?"

"You can't be him, he's no traitor!"

Keith laughed bitterly, although his fingers tensed around the controls, just waiting for the next move his enemy would try. "Believe me, I didn't think of being one till I lived through the Jaburo assault. My own side firing nukes indiscriminately, knowing that each bomb would cause slaughter. My own damn side!"

"No... you're wrong!"

"I met the man that did it! I killed him with my own hands! He didn't have a _drop _of remorse for any of those he killed! All he cared about was power... even when he was murdering his own men, he didn't care!"

Gato was in utter shock. This couldn't be true, nobody in the Principality he knew would be so callous and uncaring...surely they couldn't be!

"You liar!" he screamed, leaping straight for the Gundam. If he was going to die, then at least it would be fighting for justice... but was it real justice he was fighting for?

Keith yanked on the left arm controls, swinging his machine's beam sabre. _I'm sorry.. _

Time seemed to slow. The blades of both mobile suits' sabres met for the final time, and to both pilots' shock the Rick Dom's heat blade was neatly sliced off, leaving just the hilt.

Gato stared at the useless sabre with mounting panic. With a yell of "Sieg Zeon!" he kept moving, trying to attack the Gundam despite being almost utterly weaponless.

Keith blinked back tears as he brought the beam sabre back, with one last stab bringing merciful instant destruction to the Rick Dom and its pilot.    

The last thing Keith saw before losing all consiousness was the doomed Rick Dom, whitish-yellow flames pouring from its pierced chest. Then came a deafening roar, a blinding flash and a sensation of intense heat, then came utter darkness.

____________________________________________________________

Eledore narrowed his eyes as the Space Tank shot forward, landing on the ground of Luna II. Most of the battle was over; the enemy mobile suits were either being forced back or being destroyed, leaving the ships hanging above.

Except for one... 

The last Rick Dom was on the verge of trying to return to its Musai carrier. Obviously its pilot had seen enough and wanted out.

Eledore growled and squeezed the firing trigger. A magenta beam spewed from the Space Tank's beam gun, pierced a hole right through the Rick Dom and blew it apart in one hit.

_That'll teach you..._ Quickly tugging on the controls, Eledore turned around the Space Tank. Soon enough, he found his next target: the surviving Chivvay.  

Time to test the other weapon. Eledore thumbed the secondary weapon button, activating the micro-missile launchers.

At once, vapour trails erupted in front of him as, like the fingers of a giant hand out to grab, the missiles headed directly for their target. One by one, they hammered into the Chivvay's hull and exploded, tearing huge chunks out of its structure with every hit.

By the time the missile volley had finished, there was barely anything left. Fireballs periodically dotted the tattered remains of the once-proud battleship as it slowly fell towards Luna II's surface. But something even worse was going to happen: Eledore saw the _Osiris, positioned in an almost-perfect spot for firing on the Musais._

__________________________________________________________________

Kawada grinned. "I'm actually hoping there's gonna be a few survivors on their side. They'll have something to say to their big bosses!"

"Yes, sir," answered a bridge officer, "but are we gonna fire this thing now?"

"Of course! Railgun crew, fire at will. Aim for the Musai!"

The Musais were in a row, with the _Osiris right beside them. Staying low to keep out of their particle cannons' range, the ship prepared to attack._

Suddenly, a bang and a high-pitched whistling was heard, and a glowing white blur pierced one Musai, then the other, until all three had sprouted two holes in their structure.

Then as one, the Zeonic battleships exploded, the blasts consuming their hulls as their reactors were hit. It had taken just four seconds for three of the most well-known Zeon space battleships to be destroyed in such a manner, with a single shot.

No other battleship would be able to produce the same result for many years to come.   

Kawada's grin widened, to the accompaniment of cheers from his crew.

"I think it's safe to say the _Osiris has played its part in this battle. Return to dock."_

________________________________________________________________         

A colony in Side 5, Universal Century 0071

"Hey, Earth-born!"

"Nerdy squirt!"

Keith sighed as the gang moved up towards him. It was like this every day, it had been for over a year. Every morning, just before classes began, this bunch of thugs turned up to torment him. 

Trying to sneak into school without them seeing him didn't work; neither did trying to reason with them, as they weren't all that bright. Telling a teacher didn't work: they never gave out good enough punishments, meaning the gang got off nearly scot-free.

The leader, a brutish, ugly boy named Mike McGill, violently shoved Keith into a wall. Hearing him wince, he sneered, "Can't take it, baby-boy Earthnoid?" Keith didn't know why they called him that, he wasn't born on Earth. His father was, but he and his mother were born and raised in the Loum area. 

Keith had cried and agonised about this for too long. He felt emotions rise up inside him, ones different to his usual despair and sorrow. Anger and hate bubbled inside his mind. _If only I could smash this git's face in...   _

Mike punched him in the arm, taking care to aim for where it wouldn't show. At that point, something inside Keith snapped. He wouldn't take this kind of thing anymore, he'd teach this worthless slime a lesson...

Through the rising mist of rage, Keith saw Mike stagger back, blood dripping from his nose from a vicious punch. He didn't give Mike a chance to recover, but instead hit him again, hearing the agonised moan of pain as his fist rammed his tormentor's already-broken nose.

And another blow came. And another. And another, until finally Mike was lying on the ground, gore dripping from his lip and nose. Keith felt a sort of raging satisfaction as the rest of the gang backed off, running as fast as they could.

"Listen, you pathetic, useless trash pile: I won't take your crap anymore. Try this sort of thing again and you'll feel a damn sight worse than you are now." Keith hissed, yanking on Mike's hair.  

The only audible sound from his recumbent attacker was a muffled groan and a few spots of blood on the tarmac. 

Of course, there would be trouble afterwards. There usually was. But Keith was sure his parents would understand.

Memories flowed back from later in life: joining up with the Zeon military after watching a televised rally, his first practice sortie, the news that his home colony had been destroyed with the loss of nearly everyone who called it home...

And Keith had fought many oppressors since then. His own instructor, in the final exam. The Earth Federation. And finally, the Principality of Zeon... his own side.  

_"Dear Gods, he isn't wearing a spacesuit! Is he crazy or something?"_

_"It can be like that with our ace pilots. Char hardly ever bothered with one, after his early days. Of course, it could be down to a rush into battle..."_

_"If it's about being an ace, his own ego almost killed him this time. If the Gundam's cockpit was breached, he wouldn't have had a chance!"_

_"The fact of the matter is, he's still alive. Just unconsious and a bit bruised, but that's it. I have to admit, I never saw anything like that duel before in my life."_

_"But you've never seen a Zeon mobile suit operational in your life before, Kawada!"_

_"I know. But that...that was something different. I couldn't tear my eyes away and give the order to fire. I could barely keep up just watching, heaven knows what it must have been like for the pilots."_

_"Hey, he's waking up!"_

____________________________________________________________________ 

4th December 0079

Slowly, Keith's eyes flickered open. Through slightly blurred vision (which he had to blink a few times to clear) he saw Tiff, Norris, Kawada and nearly all the rest of the ragtag crew he belonged to now.

"Arrgh... my head..." he muttered, as he tried to get up from the bed he was lying on.

Almost immediately, Tiff tried to stop him with a cry of "Lie back! You've been through enough!"

"Gerroff! I'll be fine, just toss me some aspirin!" Keith replied, noticing the room all of them were in was his, and simultaneously grabbing a glass from the bedside table and filling it.

Just as Keith popped the aspirin tablet into his mouth and took a swig of water to help it down, Ken poked his head in through the door. "Finally, you're awake! I still haven't showed you all Luna II has... when you're ready, then..."

______________________________________________________________

Keith trailed after Ken as they navigated the winding corridors of Luna II, the sound of Ken's techno-babble floating in his ears. _Thank goodness these aspirins worked fast, or I'd have had to shut him up, Keith thought, not paying attention to his young guide. Hell, he was tired. And why shouldn't he have been? Going through that sort of battle would have drained anyone, at least in Keith's opinion._

Finally, the duo reached the exact same hangar they had seen before the battle. The same door at the end was there, and the wall was still lined with GMs.

But far fewer. As they walked past, Keith noticed several of the GMs had damage: scorched armour, massive dents, cracked "visor" cameras...

Even worse, there were empty spaces where GMs once were. Their mere emptiness served as sorrowful proof of the true cost of the war - human lives. Keith felt a sudden nausea at this realisation.

"Before I show you this, you have to remember: this is top-secret. We aren't exactly broadcasting the fact this exists yet, though I will say this: You thought your Gundam was powerful? This, my friend, is more or less equal to the _Osiris_ in terms of power. Of course we wouldn't have made this ordinarily, but with the situation..." Ken's voice tailed off.

"Quit going on and open the damn chamber." Keith sighed. He was getting a certain uneasiness about whatever this machine was. _Equal to the Osiris? Surely no single suit has that kind of capacity... or is it even a suit?_

"Fine, O Impatient One." Ken smirked, placing a keycard in a slot on the massive doors. Slowly, they slid sideways, revealing a huge shadowy figure in the gloom, a figure that was rapidly being illuminated by the lights which were even now being flicked on in the chamber... 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna II has more than just GMs and railgun-equipped ships, it seems...

Enjoy? Yes? No? Want to throw rotten tomatoes? Tell me!

  


	8. Nuclear Nightmare

Author's Note: Upset about Gato's corpseification? Sheesh... It could be worse!

And...erm... LC Wolf, don't hold a wake yet. There may be some characters who aren't quite ready to spend time with the worms... (evil grin)

----------------------------------------------------------------

Keith stood aghast as the bulky shadow was revealed to the light.

The huge figure _was _some sort of mobile suit: it had arms, legs, a head reminiscent of his own reliable Gundam.

However, the similarities ended there. The machine was more rounded, with larger legs than usual. Two large engine-like objects were attached to its shoulders, and some form of canister stuck out of its shoulder. It was too big to be a beam sabre...

A shield lay almost carelessly propped-up on the wall next to it. It was almost as big as the suit itself, with four ventilation ducts placed diagonally in its structure.

"Tell me... What the hell is this thing?"

Ken's face wore a self-satisfied grin. "This is our latest nuclear deterrent, the Gundam Physalis. We only built it when we heard about what happened at Jaburo, but the principal idea was around ever since our first few mobile suits were tested..."

"Nuclear deterrent?!"

"Yeah, it's capable of firing nuclear rounds with a specially-designed bazooka," Ken went on, oblivious to Keith's rising disgust, "but with the situation we're planning on mass-production. Nothing too serious, just ten or twenty..."

Suddenly, Keith grabbed Ken by the front of his overalls, pulling him closer. "Are you insane?! This thing could cause Armageddon on its own, but you guys want to mass-produce it?!"

Ken squirmed frantically. "Let go, dammit! And don't get all moralistic, the Zeons did this sort of thing first! Remember the C-type Zakus?" he whined, yanking on Keith's arm in an attempt to make him release his vice-like grip on his clothing.

Keith's grip seemed to evaporate. Without another word, he let go of Ken and strode off down the massive bay, heading out the door.

_______________________________________________________________

Shame flowed through Keith's mind as he hurried along. What possessed him to just grab hold of Ken and yell at him like that? 

Of course he was right; this new Gundam was a monster and mass-producing it would

be to invite total devastation, but...

Anyhow, Ken did have a point: before the treaty, the Zeons rigged up several Zakus to fire nuclear shells through their bazookas. The result of all-out nuclear war had been Loum, his home, reduced to nothing more than irradiated space debris.

And, of course, the Antarctic Treaty...  

_I am NOT turning into another McGill._  Hadn't he swore to himself when he joined the Principality, that he'd fight the oppressors and bullies of this world? _Someone has to speak up for those who have no voice..._

But now it was Zeon that was the oppressor, ripping up the rules, bombing, destroying and remorselessly killing. And was the Federation any better? If they were going to mass-produce weapons capable of killing millions in an instant, then clearly they weren't.

If Keith had any say in this, something would have to be done...

Suddenly, a shrill yell echoed down the corridor. Keith turned to see Tiff running towards him, a smile of relief plastered over her face.

"Where the hell have you been?! Look, there's a meeting about to begin. They say you'd best come to it, too."  

"...right..." Keith mumbled, still lost in thought. Tiff poked him. Slowly, the two traversed the long, winding corridors to wherever this meeting was being held...

_____________________________________________________________

Keith blinked as he entered the darkened Ops room. _Couldn't these idiots even get the lights working? _

The idea had barely settled in his head when the lights snapped on, revealing almost all of the _Speranza_'s crew, Kawada and a few others who he hadn't really met.

"Jeez, couldn't you guys have kept the lights on?!" he growled, rubbing his eyes as they were forced to adjust yet again.

"Sorry about that, but the reactor technicians reported a minor malfunction with the power conduits. Looks like they fixed it..." Wakkein replied as Keith grabbed a seat.

"Well," he went on, "I'm sure we know why we're here. We need a plan of action against the Zeonic threat. They've used nuclear weapons, tore up the Antarctic Treaty, and according to reports, even worse is happening."

_What the hell could be worse than nuking people? _Keith wondered, still slightly miffed.

"It seems the Zabis don't think we're much of a threat after the nuke drop. They're invading any surviving space colonies they can find, one after the other." 

There was a general gasp of horror around the room, and Michel spoke in a voice trembling with emotion, "Have they gotten to Side 6 yet?"

"Not yet, but the way things are going it's only a matter of time." Wakkein replied, to which Michel let out a piteous whimper of fear.

"Also," he went on, oblivious to Michel's personal anguish, "our chain of command is in serious trouble. Revil, Tianem, all who we could have trusted to lead us to victory,  either perished in Jaburo or are being hunted down on Earth as we speak, while every scrap of Earth soil they helped us take back is being rapidly taken again by the enemy. Our ground forces can hold out, but not for long. So, we need some of you to help in tactical ideas and development."

_This is it,_ Keith thought to himself, his mind working furiously. _It's times like this that sort the wheat from the chaff, the leaders from the grunts..._

He stood up and cleared his throat. "The way I see it, Luna II is trapped. One one side, the Zeon space force can come to attack at any time. We only just managed to hold them off this time around, and next time they'll bring nuclear weapons.

On the other, there's no help from ground forces. Jaburo's gone, there's only a few bases left. However, there are ex-Zeon troops who go under the name of the Anti-Zabi Rebellion who could help turn the tide."

"Plus, what did the _Speranza_ come to Luna II to do? Deliver GMs. Devote nearly all of your resources to making them, drop them onto Earth to retake production facilities, and keep going. If you have the manpower, blockade Earth as much as you can.

What I'm suggesting is we fight on two fronts at once: Earthside and in space. It's a bad idea, but we don't have much choice. If we attack and advance fast, it might just work."

Wakkein raised an eyebrow. "How? We don't have enough men, or enough production capacity!"

"Simple," Keith continued, "don't mass-produce strictly standard GMs. I saw a certain prototype of yours, the GM Command model. One out of every ten GMs should be a Command-type. We can't rely on numbers alone anymore, so we have to rely on power. Plus, if you're worried about manpower, you should use people already on the ground and the ex-Zeons to fight Earthside."

From his seat, Kojima smiled. _Good lad, he's better at strategical thought than what I expected of him..though this strategy of his isn't too bright.._

Keith's eyes narrowed. "And speaking of prototypes, why have you created a Gundam capable of firing nuclear weapons?" he growled, to which there was another gasp.

Wakkein sighed. "You mean the Gundam Physalis? This _is_ all-out war, you know. As you of all people should know, if we can't fight back effectively the Zeon forces will blow us to kingdom come."

"It's insane! That thing's capable of killing millions! _And_ I heard there's plans to mass-produce it!"

Tiff stood up. "Wakkein's right, Keith. Either you were living under a rock earlier this year, or you've seen the power that the Zeons can use at any time to blow us away.

I don't like the idea any more than you do, but..."

Keith sighed. "Alright, but I'm not having that bloody thing on my ship!"

"I never asked you to. Though now that you mention it, the _Speranza_ is more of a natural target than the rest of our fleet..." Wakkein mused. _I never should have opened my big mouth!_ thought Keith, angered at the thought of sharing hangar space with such a walking slaughterhouse.

Kojima wandered over to Keith, and leaned in closer to him."Good job there. But having a nuclear Gundam on our ship isn't such a bad idea. See, it's up to you and the rest of the crew to determine its purpose, or even if it should go out to battle at all." he whispered into the younger man's ear.

"There's only a few questions left now: for example, the flagship of the remains of the Federal fleet. We have one, but nobody to use it and lead us. I suppose I'm forced to do this job, but we also need a backup ship to take the helm.  We can sort out the ranks later. There's plenty of new battleships being created, but we want one with a proven record. One that can and will destroy the Zeon forces." Wakkein said.

Keith let out a quiet sigh, as he rose again. He hoped the _Speranza_ wouldn't be chosen for the job; that was far too much responsibility too soon.

"There's only one ship I think fits your description to a tee. The _Osiris_ is new, and as the recent defensive battle has shown it packs huge amounts of destructive power. Plus, I've met Captain Kawada and believe he's a good leader." 

"But your own ship has a legend behind it, and has been through more than the _Osiris_, Mr. Holt." Wakkein returned. "Why not let your crew take the reins of command?"

"With all due respect, I think that's too much power for us." Keith argued, noticing Kawada's normally cheeky grin becoming ever wider. "Though we would take the responsibility in the event of the _Osiris_ or your flagship being immobilised or destroyed, we'll try to stop that from happening."

"Then that's all the big problems out of the way. The _Osiris_ will be second only to the _Phoebe_ in taking the fight to the Zeonic forces out here, while we will send mass-production mobile suits down to Earth to retake important facilities and drive the Zeons offplanet. Meanwhile, we will devote a quarter of our surviving space fleet to ensuring no enemy supplies make it to Earth. The MS drop will henceforth be known as 'Operation Icarus'." Wakkein announced, before adding "Any questions?"

"Yes sir! I was wondering...when will the first batches of GMs be ready for deployment?" piped up a concerned Federation officer.

"If we push our facilities hard, around three days."

_________________________________________________________________

"What the hell was that? 'I'm not having arguably the greatest weapon ever on my ship because I don't like nukes'?" James teased, a little unkindly.

Keith sighed. "Look, you heard what I said. It's capable of mass slaughter and the brass are planning on making MORE of the bloody things. I wish there was something I could do.."

Most of the crew had already filed out of the Ops room, but it seemed Tiff and Kojima had stayed behind to discuss something. Keith and James had stayed too, lurking outside in the corridor.

"Face it, bud: there's nothing we can do. Like it or not, it's total war now. The Zeons have shown they're capable of nuking without hesitation, so unless we want to end up  glowing piles of ash we'd better be ready to do the same." James patted Keith on the back. "Don't be so down about it, hm? Or I might have to bop you one to snap you outta it." he smiled.

"I guess you're right..." Keith mumbled, still downcast. Just then, Kojima strode out the Ops room door, coming to a halt right beside Keith.

"Want the good news or the bad news, lads?" he grinned. "Just gimme the news, Kojima..." Keith muttered in reply.

"Well, the guys say that they're worried our ship'll get nuked. The Gundam's powerful enough for 'em to waste one nuke in destroying it, so it looks like the Physalis'll be our responsibility from now on. But Keith, remember what I said..." Kojima said reassuringly.

"Yeah, yeah, it's our choice to send it out..." sighed Keith in reply.

With his mind in a whirl and having nothing else to do, Keith headed back to the _Speranza_. As he walked, his mind turned to a certain member of the crew: Shiro. Was what he said about his feelings on war on the way into space true?  And if so, did he hate the war enough to quit?

_______________________________________________________________

"...What are you doing?"

The chief technician smirked at Norris' question, replying in his Cockney-accented voice, "Just upgradin' the ship for ya, guv. New guns and such."

What seemed to be a huge winch suspended from the ceiling of the hangar moved towards the _Speranza_'s hull in what appeared to be a menacing manner, a gun turret dangling from it. Norris squinted. _Four barrels? That's insane, isn't it...?_

Technicians scurried around, gripping tool kits and large pieces of machinery. Norris turned to the chief. "Look, does this thing really need beefing up?"

"It does, mate. I got special orders from the top, they said to give this thing a real overhaul. Bigger suit bay, more guns, better engines, the works. You don't like it, go moan to my boss 'cause it ain't my choice." the greasy-haired technician replied.

_What the hell, any improvement's a good thing, surely._ Norris sat back and watched the technicians at their work, as they removed, replaced, lengthened.   

Just then, Keith entered the bay. Walking up to Norris, he quietly spoke to the older man. "Look, d' you know where Shiro is? I have to see him. ...And, what in the name of all deities are these losers doing to our ship?"

"Upgrading it." Norris replied, just as the four-barreled main gun was being welded in place. "Plus, I don't really know where Shiro is. Go check the crew quarters, he might be there." 

________________________________________________________________

Keith shoved one of the mechanics aside as he sprinted into the _Speranza_, eliciting an indignant yell of protest which he ignored. 

He was concerned about Shiro, that was true, but at this point going to find and discuss his possible resignation was more an excuse. Any excuse to blot out the fact that the freshly-completed Gundam Physalis, arguably the most destructive weapon yet, was going to be on the very same ship.

Kojima had a point, but it didn't mean Keith had to like it. And at the moment, he loathed it. The idea of one of his fellow crew members initiating an act of mass slaughter with the monstrous metal beast was enough to make his stomach heave.

Lost in resentful thought, Keith violently collided with someone in his haste, the impact knocking them both to the floor. Whoever it was sniffled and whimpered, in a familiar voice tight with emotion, "Ow... Why don't you watch where you're going?"

"Michel?" Keith asked, rubbing his freshly-bruised head, and looking up to see the younger pilot climb to his feet. Something seemed to be wrong...

Michel sniffled again, watching through red-rimmed eyes as Keith clambered back up. Finally he spoke. "Keith... I told you I had a girlfriend. We lived in Side 6 before I left, and I think she's still there... the Zeon Navy's coming to take it over. I'm worried for her, we have to stop them..."

Keith sighed. "Yes, but... we have to wait for orders. I can't just dash off to Side 6 straight away... we have to prepare, get the suits prepped and a job to do there."

Michel, unperterbed, continued his pleas. "We do have a job to do there! ...remember what you promised me? That you'd help me get back to her?"

Keith's mind was torn. On one side, he had no orders, no purpose in Side 6. If he went, he'd be classed as AWOL, ship or no. But on the other, Michel was definitely suffering. The morale of the entire crew was low. Plus, Keith had made a promise, and he'd be damned if he went against his word.

He sighed again, and turned to Michel. "Pick a mobile suit from the base's R&D lab. We're moving in to intercept the enemy the moment the _Speranza_'s upgraded." 

____________________________________________________________

Three hours later

The entire bay shuddered as the _Speranza_'s engines ignited, their blue light flooding the chamber and dazzling the technicians. Workers fled as the bay doors opened, depressurising and releasing air into space.

Shiro watched, safe inside the sealed control room. _I don't want to fight anymore.. I hope you can understand..._ he thought as the ship shot through the doors and into space, heading to an unknown fate...

------------------------------------------------------------------

Ooooh! What will happen at Side 6? Will Keith finally meet his match? Find out, in the next exciting episode of… (hits self with a pan) 

Must stop thinking this is a show instead of a fic…

Anyhow, I had to guess Michel's colony of origin for this one, but it's a logical guess: almost all the other clusters were annihilated in the One Week War, yes?

Anyhow, opinions? GIVE ME THEM!!! Raaarrgh! O.o  

  

       


	9. To Side 6

5th December 0079

"Now, I think we understand why we're heading for Side 6," Keith began, as he addressed the crew of the _Speranza_. The discussion was also being beamed to the _Osiris_, which had tagged along for the battle.

"We're, according to reports, the only Federal units going to stop the Zeons from invading the colony cluster. They've probably got an entire fleet heading to take over, we've only got two ships. But we're the only hope the people in those colonies have left."

"And I pray to whatever's up there that we win..." muttered Michel from his seat on the bridge as Keith continued his speech.

"There's a good chance we won't make it back alive. But if you're gonna back out, think of the innocent people in those colonies first. They might end up being gassed in another colony drop, they might get blown up once the Zeons have taken over and the rest of the Federal fleet gets its ass in gear. But I have faith in you all. We have powerful weaponry at our disposal - see the _Osiris_ out there? As you probably know, it's got a railgun capable of taking out three ships at once if it's aimed properly. This ship's been upgraded and its firepower's been given a boost, and of course we have the Gundam. But we need a plan of action."

"I suggest I and a few volunteers move in to attack the enemy ships head-on. The rest of our mobile suit forces will ensure that none of the enemy have entered the colonies themselves."

"That's insane! Are you out of your mind!?" Tiff shrieked.

Keith turned to Tiff, sighing. "Look, you've seen what the Gundam is capable of. Why are you doubting it now?"

"Powerful as it is, it's still only one suit! The Zeon fleet has its own mobile suits, and no matter how powerful Gundam is it's still horribly outnumbered. You don't stand a chance alone!"

Keith's eyes narrowed. "It's either my life or those colonists' lives. Those maniacs coming to take the colony are gonna do something awful, I can tell. I can't stand by and watch it happen." he said, the cold edge to his tone silencing even Tiff. When he was sure he had everyone's attention, he continued.

"All right. Anyone else willing to fight outside of the colonies? It's a lot easier than being inside them, but you'll be fighting more of the enemy..."

Michel raised a trembling hand. "I-I'll volunteer..."

Keith moved beside Michel, lowering his voice. "Sorry, that's out of the question. Your girl's in one of those colonies, you've gotta protect her. It's no good if you get yourself killed without doing something to stop the enemy.... you need to stop the Zeons from getting into the colony. If we win, that's good... if we don't, you can always abandon your suit and hide. With any luck nobody'll notice." he said quietly.

James grinned. "Don't even think about that, Keithy. We're gonna win this!"

6th December 0079

Keith sighed, his eyes fixed on the rapidly-moving empty space before him.

His Core Fighter shot through the blackness as he began the task of patrolling the area around the _Speranza._

"You know, I think I'm more used to stuff like this." came James' voice through the comm. Keith's head swung around, his eyes fixed on his craft's twin, under the control of his friend. "Oh? Why's that?"

When he spoke again, James' voice was tinged with emotion. "I wasn't always a mobile suit pilot, y'know... before the war, I always wanted to be a fighter pilot." he muttered wistfully.

"What happened?" the ex-Zeon pilot replied, curious to know.

"I got my wish. But I was assigned to the Air Force rather than the Space Force. Meaning I was stuck on Earth while the Zeons started blowing the living hell out of us. After they invaded, the Federation wanted test pilots for their new mobile suits... and I got the job." came the reply through the comm.

"Oh..."

"Then the brass sidelined me again," James' voice bit out, "by assigning me to the Jaburo defense battalion! Can you believe it? Mind you, 'cause Jaburo was so important, they didn't spare much expense in retraining me. Captured enemy suits used as drone targets and opponents for melee combat practice, the works. Came in handy, eh? Considering what happened?"

"Suppose so. But you don't exactly want to hear my life story, James... too painful." Keith replied, an air of finality in his tone. Suddenly, something caught his eye. A piece of space debris? It didn't look like your average lump of asteroid...

"I've found something interesting. I'm gonna go check it out." Keith said into the comm unit, before pushing on the throttle and speeding towards the mysterious object.

As he got closer his suspicions were confirmed: it was the remains of a Zaku. It had been mangled; its legs and most of its left arm were missing, though its right still gripped a machine gun.

There was something different about it, Keith noticed. It was much bulkier than a regular unit, and there was a strange boxy feel to its structure.

Was it an experimental suit? Expressly designed to test new technology?

There wasn't anything different about its armament, so it had to be something internal.

"What is it?" James' voice asked, through the comm. For a split-second, Keith could almost visualise the suit's last hours: shooting into space for a simple test, only to be attacked and annihilated by Federal battleships. Why it had even been tested in such a remote area was a mystery to him, and, he theorised, to its pilot.

"Well?"

"...It's just a wrecked Zaku. Let's return to the ship." Keith replied wearily.

A day later...

By the time the _Speranza_ and _Osiris_ made it to the outskirts of the Side 6 colony cluster, an urgent communication came in from the _Osiris_.

"You picked up WHAT?!?" Keith exclaimed.

Kawada nodded, biting his lower lip a bit. "No joke. We just picked up a series of nuclear explosions on the surface of Earth...a lot of them centered around California Base, but a fair share in Africa and the Oceania region as well."

Keith leaned heavily on the communications console, the blood draining from his face. Behind him, he could feel the horror from everyone else present. "God in Heaven...the Zeons are gonna contaminate the whole damn planet!"

Kawada turned to someone off screen, exchanged a few words, and came back, looking at a clipboard with a puzzled frown. After a moment of silence, he blinked, and looked up at Keith. "That's not the weird part, though...reports say none of our forces set off the nukes."

Keith's brows furrowed in surprise. "...I'm not sure if that's supposed to comfort me or not, captain..."

"You and me both, Keith...you and me both." Kawada sighed.

Not surprisingly, there were no patrol ships awaiting their arrival once they passed the markers for Side 6, which only added to Michel's unease. Keith did his best to comfort the kid (try as he might, he couldn't get over thinking of Michel as a kid...had to be the looks), but it didn't help.

As soon as they crossed the border, Keith called everyone together for one last meeting to hash out details.

"All right, let's go over this one more time: Eledore, Norris and James are with me; we'll cover the colony as best we can from any additional forces. Michel and Sanders, you two will enter the colony and take care of what you need to do there. The _Speranza_ will try to lay some cover for the MS, but focus primarily on protecting the _Osiris_ until it gets into firing position. Any last minute questions?"

No hands were raised.

Nodding, Keith shouted in what he hoped was an authoritative voice, "Alright, to your stations, let's GO!"

Kojima clasped Eledore, Michel and Sanders' shoulders briefly, wishing them luck before he approached Keith. Looking the older man in the eye, Keith couldn't help but fidget uncomfortably until the Lt. Colonel smiled. "You take care of my boys out there, alright?" he said. Keith nodded firmly, replying, "I'll do my best, sir."

Kojima nodded. "I know you will...now give those Zeons hell!"

Keith grinned and sprinted off to the MS hangar. As he entered, he was pleased to note that everyone was beginning final preparations for their suits to launch, with the exception of their GM Command unit, which was already positioning itself on the catapult. Assuming it to be Sanders, he did a double take when he saw the man in question settling into the cockpit of a standard GM as he floated to the Gundam. Flipping on his suit radio, he said, "Sanders, do you copy? Who's in the Command model?"

"Michel...I figured he could use the extra thrust power and armor better than this old man," the veteran chuckled. Keith had to concede that point, and was pleased to see that he wasn't the only one trying to watch out for the young soldier.

Shortly after he and his MS were ready, everyone else had launched and assumed an advance screen for the two ships. After launching himself, Keith moved himself into position and flipped on his radio. "All right everyone, this is it...remember, this isn't for the Federation: this is for the innocent civilians who will die if we fail!"

"Feels like Britain all over again," Norris muttered.

"Operation British ain't gonna happen, Packard! Not on MY watch!" Eledore bit out from the Space Tank.

"That wasn't what I was referring to," the Zeon colonel replied. "I was referring to the Battle of Britain from Earth's history...a small, outnumbered force, fighting a desperate defense against a seemingly invincible foe. Sound familiar?"

Keith smirked grimly, as he got the reference: the Battle of Britain had been one of the most famous battles of 20th-century history, with Nazi Germany's attempt to bomb the island of Great Britain into submission with hundreds of aircraft.

This time, mobile suits were the new technology both sides were forced to get to grips with, and the stakes were much higher.

Though he only dimly remembered learning tactics from the World War II era during his training at the Academy, Keith had taken an interest.

All of a sudden everyone's comm units beeped. Tiff appeared upon the comm screen, her face looking anxious. "Everyone, we have the enemy force on screen! Looks like...eight Musai class cruisers, and four Chivvays. Space is swarming with multiple bogeys, too. Looks like they're carrying a full complement of MS each." Biting her lip, she shook her head, and said, "Be careful, everyone! And good luck!"

Each pilot preoccupied with their own thoughts, the suits and their accompanying ships shot into battle.

Seated in the captain's chair on the bridge of his flagship, the _Gwanza_, Conscon surveyed the Side 6 area with eagerness. This quick visit would serve two purposes: not only could their presence help spur the Riah authorities to officially support Zeon, they could also check out rumours of a Federal base in the region.

"Captain! Enemy ships detected at 10 o' clock!" the radar operator reported.

"So, the Feddie bastards have finally gotten the guts to die like men, eh? How many are there?" he asked.

"I'm reading two ships! One looks like the Trojan Horse...and the other seems to be a Magellan. But some of their equipment is nothing like standard for either ship!"

Conscon frowned at the mention of the Trojan Horse, but shrugged. "Two ships against our fleet? This is barely worth our time, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to get a little exercise," Conscon admitted. "Request that the Mobile Assault Force ships launch their suits out to meet them, but let the others have fun with the patrols...and inform all ships to secure a new heading. If they want a straight up fight, then we'll give them what they want. All gunners, pick and choose your targets!"

With those orders given, fifteen Zaku II Kais launched, arrowing toward the advancing Federation force.

The Battle of Side 6 had begun...


	10. The Battle of Side 6

December 10th, UC 0079

The Principality of Zeon, now secured in their dominance over the Earth Federation, begin a systematic campaign of wiping out or conquering all remaining pockets of possible Federation resistance while gaining supporters. The most obvious target is the cluster of colonies in Side 6, where a secret Federal base has been rumoured to be located. In a direct violation of the treaties of neutrality, Zeon forces under the command of Captain Conscon head for the colony cluster under orders to root out the Federal forces...by any means necessary.

However, ex-Zeon pilot Keith Holt leads the two E.F.S.F battleships _Osiris_ and _Speranza_ to the same colony cluster, under the impression that the ships are an invasion force.

The Battle of Side 6 has now begun to unfold...

* * *

"Heads up, I got visual on the targets! Looks like...Zaku IIs. This shouldn't be too tough," James called over the radio.

"Okay...Eledore, you go with Sanders and Michel, but I want you to cover the colony as best you can. Don't let any more mobile suits get in, while we clear out the assault force," Keith commanded.

Three acknowledgements met his orders, and both GMs, along with the Space Tank, arrowed off toward the colony.

In response, six Zakus broke off from the enemy formation to cut off the rescue force, but before Keith could shout a warning, the remaining nine opened fire, forcing himself, James and Norris to scatter.

Instantly, Keith lined up a shot on one of the passing MS...but it seemed to take forever for the Gundam to bring its beam rifle to bear. Finally, the shot was snapped off, piercing the suit right through the cockpit, followed by a detonation seconds later.

Packard, though flanked by two enemies of his own, seemed to have a fairly easy time. It almost seemed that his opponents were confused at fighting another Zaku II. In response, the former Zeon captain snapped off a shot at one with a borrowed EFSF Hyper Bazooka, but the MS showed an unusual amount of dexterity and nimbly rolled out of its way, spraying a burst of machine gun fire in return. This return fire Packard barely managed to dodge, only to have to hit his thrusters again to avoid a bazooka shot from the other Zaku swooping past. Flipping on his radio, he called out, "These aren't normal Zakus! Everyone watch yourselves...I think they've got upgraded maneuverability!"

Gritting his teeth as he did so, Norris began to close the distance with a Zaku that was unwise enough to stop moving. By the time it noticed him, it was too late: Norris lifted his machine's bazooka and fired a shot into its chest. The blast battered his own Zaku around, but Norris didn't mind too much, as his target obviously came off worse.  
As he searched for another target, he saw the Gundam blast a hole in another enemy Zaku with its beam rifle.

"Damn you!" Sanders cursed as the Zaku he was fighting shoulder-tackled him, sending his GM flying back. Struggling to bring his suit under control, the veteran could see his opponent lining up a shot with its bazooka...only to be blown away by a beam weapon before firing.

"Don't expect those Zeek bastards to fight fair, Sanders! Stay sharp!" Eledore said.

"Right...thanks, Eledore."

Michel, in the meantime, was trying to force his way past the Zaku that confronted him to get to the colony. Spraying machine gun fire in a deliberate pattern, he tried to get the Zaku out of his way, but the pilot simply weaved through the bullets, the enemy suit reaching for its heat hawk.

Letting out a strangled cry of frustration, Michel dumped the weapon, and activated his beam saber, moving almost instantaneously. As the mobile suit neared, the young corporal closed his eyes, expecting at any second for it to attack with a deadly blow…

Which didn't seem to come. Cautiously, he opened his eyes, and blinked in surprise as he saw the Zaku neatly impaled on his saber. Acting on instinct, he reversed his thrusters and removed the saber from the dying suit, just in time to avoid the explosion.

He had barely blown a sigh of relief when Sanders' voice screamed over the radio: "Michel, behind you!"

Somehow knowing that taking the time to look would mean his death, he simply spun to his left, and brought the GM's beam saber around in a powerful, blind slash...managing to catch the Zaku that had snuck up on him right at the waist. The explosion blinded him momentarily, and then he quickly glanced around, relieved that the other two had apparently been taken care of.

"Looks like that's almost all of them...okay, you go do your shining knight routine, okay kid?" Sanders joked.

"Sure thing...but don't call me kid, old man!" Michel called back.

* * *

The _Speranza_ and _Osiris_, in the meantime, were taking a beating from the enemy ships' main guns.

Another explosion shook the Pegasus-class assault carrier as one of the Musais connected with a beam cannon barrage. In response, their own gunners concentrated their firepower on the green ship as they attempted to maneuver out of its range.

"Missiles coming in fast from one of the Chivvays!" the sensor officer called out.

"Fire our countermeasures! And tell the gunners not to let up!" Tiff called out, pulling double duty as the acting captain and comm officer.

"There's too many of them! We won't get them all...maybe not even half!"

"Then instruct some of our gunners to focus on ship defense!" she called out disractedly. The ship lurched from a glancing shot as she opened a line to the _Osiris_. "_Osiris_, this is _Speranza_...what's your status?"

"_Osiris_ here...we're taking some hits, but we're almost in position...just a few more minutes..." Kawada responded. As if fate decided to play a cruel joke, a broadside barrage from one of the Chivvays impacted the Magellan, causing it to visibly rock. On screen, Kawada and the other officers present staggered from the force, some falling out of their seats, others managing to grab onto railings or supports in time.

Kawada turned to his crew and shouted, "Damage report!"

"Generator three has been knocked offline, while generators one, two and four are marginally damaged...we can reach eighty percent capacity at max!"

The gunnery control shouted back, "We've reached optimum firing distance! Angle checks out...thirty seconds to fire railgun!"

Kawada nodded in relief and relayed the news to the _Speranza_.

* * *

"Captain! The Mobile Assault Force's Zakus have been all but obliterated! Surviving units report they were ambushed by Federal mobile suits - and one of them is the Gundam!" shrieked the comm officer aboard the _Gwanza_, a look of terror upon his face.

Conscon felt as though he had been dragged into a nightmare. The MAF were supposed to be the best of the best, answering to Lady Kycilia they were outfitted with some of the most powerful suits in the Zeon fleet. Deploying this part of the Space Attack Force two days prior to the slightly nearer Mobile Assault Force had been a stroke of genius, and in retrospect Conscon had to admire that sort of plan. Both forces combined and arriving at their target at the same time…

But good planning wasn't enough, evidently. If the MAF could be swatted aside so easily, what chance did his portion of the fleet stand? Still, there was that new weapon his Rick Dom divisions had been outfitted with. The designers had said it was more powerful than the Gundam's beam weapon… now was the time to put it to the test.

"Deploy all mobile suits! And tell the Rick-Dom pilots to switch their weapons before they launch!" he ordered, a look of determination upon his face. The Feddies were strong, but they were vastly outnumbered. Surely this would crush them.

* * *

"Target locked on!"

"Shell's loaded!"

"Energy levels are fine!"

Kawada nodded and smirked at his various officers, then gave the order. "Fire!"

A burst of light fountained through space as the heavy, white-hot shell sped from the railgun towards its targets. Smashing into the bridge of one of the Chivvays and destroying it, it continued straight through on its destructive flight, knocking aside several defending Zakus before coming to rest in the side of a Musai.

Kawada's grin widened, but from the bridge he saw blue flashes of electricity arcing around the barrel of the railgun. His cocky expression dying on his face, Kawada turned to the gunnery control officers. "Is there a problem?" he asked.

One of the officers whimpered audibly, before answering. "There's a fault with the magnetic coating! If we fire another shell, the friction from the barrel could set off a chain reaction and destroy the ship!" he squeaked.

"Damn…See if you can repair it somehow!" The Federal captain's eyes narrowed as the enemy mobile suits launched, coming closer and closer to the melee…

* * *

"We need to get more aggressive! Get in there and cause as much damage as possible! Try to stick to close-combat, it's easier for your ammo supplies!" Keith yelled into the comm, watching the Rick-Doms speed into the battle.

"Easy for you to say.." sighed James, seconds before firing a cavalcade of cannon shells at one of the advancing, highly-mobile enemy suits.

It easily dodged shell after shell, before returning fire with some sort of massive bazooka-like weapon slung on its shoulder.

Frantically yanking at the controls, James narrowly avoided the wide beam of energy it fired by inches. "Holy… what the hell _is_ that thing?!" he shouted, his eyes wide with shock.

"Dunno! Just stay away from it!" Keith scowled and gritted his teeth as another of the bulky monstrosities fired a beam at him, quickly joined by a shot from another Rick-Dom.

Hitting his thrust engines in order to dodge a third Rick-Dom's attack, Keith was once again reminded of how slow the Gundam felt to him. It was as if the suit's frame was made of lead, it maneuvered so sluggishly.

Though despite this, it seemed he was the only one finding the suit slow. All three beams had missed, and although one had came close to a colony it hadn't impacted.

_Not as though I have much time to worry about that at the moment, though... _Keith thought as the Gundam lifted up its beam rifle, blasting a hole straight through a Rick-Dom's chest and reactor. It hung there for about a second before exploding in a blinding ball of flame.

Keith's eyes narrowed as one of his enemies lifted its beam bazooka for the second time. "Oh no, you don't!" he growled, dropping his beam rifle and speeding straight for the Rick-Dom in one smooth motion. Bracing himself for either impact or a destructive beam, Keith fervently hoped it would be the former.

He was rewarded for his quick thinking with a nerve-shattering jolt as his suit rammed the opponent shield-first with a clang, its beam sent askew and shooting harmlessly past. Smirking, Keith grabbed his beam sabre, hurriedly ignited and swung it, striking the still-stunned Rick-Dom as its pilot tried to recover control.

Keith was eerily reminded of the Rick-Dom he'd faced at Luna II as the enemy suit was vapourised by its own energy, visibly cut in half for a second beforehand, seemingly before the laws of physics could catch up.

Suddenly, a huge beam blew half the shield off the Gundam's left arm. Quickly turning the suit around, Keith saw the third Rick-Dom casting its beam bazooka aside and drawing its heat sabre. He tugged at the controls, lifting his still-ignited beam sabre up into a defensive position, readying himself for the inevitable lunging attack.

It didn't come. Cannon shells hammered into the Rick-Dom's chassis, leaving massive dents as it flailed helplessly from the force, vainly trying to steady itself.

Seeing the red shape of the Guncannon, Keith smiled, before lunging forward and piercing the Rick-Dom's chest with his sabre. "Thanks for that, James. I thought he almost had me!"

* * *

"Dammit!" Tiff cursed as a missile smashed into the side of the _Speranza. _Formidable though the ship was, it wasn't invincible, and for all its technological advancements it still was built for Mobile Suit-based combat.

Thus, it was taking a serious beating from the large numbers of Zeon ships. Tiff personally doubted whether they'd survive much longer.

Suddenly, one of the Musais was hit by a torrent of particle cannon fire from the _Osiris, _and split apart. Though its main weapon was out of action, it could still rely on the Magellan lineage's heavy firepower to deliver destruction to the enemy.

"This isn't working! Move closer to our mobile suits!" the Acting Captain screamed, over the constant explosions and various sounds of weapons fire.

"...But that means we'll be going right into the melee!" wailed a radar technician.

"So be it! At least we'll have some of our mobile suits to cover us!" she growled in return, her eyes narrowed.

* * *

"Decompression complete. Access to colony granted."

Michel smiled grimly as the hatch opened, revealing the massive interior of his home colony. He only hoped there weren't any Zeons already inside...

"_Speranza_, do you copy? We've entered one of the colonies and are about to get into a defensive position. Over." Terry spoke into his comm unit, before igniting the GM's thrusters and leaping downwards.

Pulling himself together, Michel quickly followed him into the colony.

* * *

Meanwhile, just outside the colony, Eledore was facing an increasing number of enemies. The suit pilots had seen Michel and Terry enter the colony, and now they wanted to trap them inside, annihilating them inside its metal confines. Civilian costs be damned; the Zeon propaganda machine could always cover up their mistakes.

Only the citizens of this colony would know the devastation wrought if the Zeons won, the Side 3 faithful would only hear of glorious liberation.

The blonde musician-pilot growled as he shot at the hordes of Zakus swarming towards the colony. A beam blew apart two of the targets at once, but still more came, spraying the hard rain of machine gun bullets.  
Eledore scowled as several bullets slammed into the Space Tank. However, its strong Luna Titanium shell resisted the brunt of the assault.

_Those bastards.._ Powering on the thrust engines, Eledore urged the Space Tank out of the way of the hail of deadly fire. To his horror, he saw that not all of the attacking suits were the standard Zaku IIs. A few individual units were the older Zaku Is, each carrying an eerily recognisable piece of equipment...

Suddenly, a stray shot hit one of the Tank's multi-missile pods. The entire set of ordinance exploded, catapulting the bulky machine aside with the force of the blast.  
Rapidly returning fire with the beam gun while trying to recover control, Eledore screamed into the comm, "Enemies incoming!"

* * *

"Are you _sure_ we have to do this, sir?" asked the _Gwanza_'s comm officer.

Conscon sighed. He didn't like the idea of the "scorched-earth" policy developed by some of the more hard-hearted Zeon top brass, but orders were orders.

"Though it goes against my better judgement, we have to do this. Tell our Zaku Is to deploy their gas when they enter the colony."

* * *

Keith frowned as he viewed the battle before him. Things were going well, surprisingly. Though something felt wrong to him... a trap?

Norris' silver Zaku flashed past, ramming into and chopping an enemy Zaku in half with one heat hawk-laden hand while flashing him a thumbs-up with the other.

Keith forgot his fear and grinned for a second; if he were the doomed Zeon pilot he'd be more humiliated than sorrowful about his fate.

Suddenly he felt a massive sense of danger. Something was coming.... from the left of him.

Just as he hit the thrust engines, the surviving five Zakus headed straight at him from the direction of the colony, unleashing a spray of 120mm death.

Time seemed to slow, as to the Zeon pilots' horror, their target evaded every last one of their shots in a scene of terrible, graceful astro-acrobatics. First it executed a roll, then a sort of zero-gravity backflip.  
At the end of the flip, the Gundam hurled its shield at one of the Zakus, before letting go of its beam rifle, drawing both beam sabres and charging at its foes.

The resultant melee was short and violent; at the speeds it was shooting towards them at, the Zakus stood no chance against the "White Devil". With each stroke of the magenta sabre, a Zaku was annihilated.  
One quickly grabbed its heat hawk and attempted to attack it, but it was utterly futile. The Gundam's beam sabre sliced right through the metal blade into the foolhardy machine, causing it to vanish in a destructive fireball.

In fact, it was only just as the last Zaku had been destroyed that the white Mobile Suit came to a halt. Keith cursed, as he looked down to the combat computer's monitor.  
The readout was a shocking display of red and orange, and in large letters the words "OVERHEAT: JOINT FAILURE".

However, that wasn't his only concern. Looking up, Keith saw the Sun's rays blocked by a gigantic humanoid figure, silhouetted against the blinding light.

He shuddered, as something about this figure exuded an incredible aura of power and menace...


	11. Clash of the Titans

Hiiii… 

Sorry for the late (Late? More like nonexistent) updates…

It's just I'm pretty overworked. College and the need to write my own original  
novel have eaten much of my time.

This is a guest chapter written by my good friend Arkbot...  
Before you say anything, I KNOW he does it better than me!

Still, I did rewrite part of it. It's easy to find the part I re-wrote… it's worse  
than the rest of the chapter. Hehehe.

By the way, Mak… it takes a lot to overheat the Gundam's joints.  
Draw your own conclusions, but all will be revealed soon…

Without further ado, the chapter!

* * *

****

_December 10, UC 0079_

Chicago colony was just as he'd remembered it. The sprawling streets, the near-total urbanization, the lights that glowed like the stars-if Michel could, he would've opened the cockpit hatch to the concrete playground below and ran through the streets screaming in joy.

_"Michel, do you read me?"_ the voice of Sergeant Terry Sanders crackled through the radio, interrupting Michel's ruminations.

"I read you." Michel swung the barrel of the steel gray 90mm machinegun in a slow sweep of Main Street. His monitor bathed the cockpit in green light from the night vision filtering through the GM Command's visor. It was just past midnight on what should have been the beginning of an uneventful Tuesday. Aside from a handful of late night drunks stumbling home and police on patrol, there was nothing unusual in the colony. "What is it?"

As he scanned the street, Michel sighted a familiar building. Four stories tall and lined by balconies, the brick structure generated one word in his mind: _home_. That was the apartment building he and B.B.'s families had lived in before he had enlisted.

_"I just got a call from somebody claiming to be the head of the civil defense force. You wanna talk to him?" _

"You're the one with the higher rank."

_"Yeah, but this is your colony. I think the guy would appreciate our presence a little better if you told him why we're here." _

Michel sighed. "All right, put him."

An image popped up on the corner monitor of a middle aged man wearing the brown uniform of the Riah Defense Force.

_"Who is this?"_ he demanded.

"Corporal Michel Ninorich of the Federal Forces. We're here to help."

_"If you want to help, then get the hell off the colony!" _

"Sir, the Zeeks are coming to attack this colony even as we speak!"

_"How do you know that? The Zeons weren't attacking us until you showed up!"_

"Well-"

_"Michel, Sanders, heads up!"_ James' voice cut in. _"You've got incoming, south end! Three _Zakus_, all loaded with G-3 grenade launchers."_

"There, you see? The Zeeks are coming to kill every last person on the colony, and they don't care how many people die!"

The graying man studied Michel for a moment. _"You swear you'll do your best to protect the colony?"_

"I swear. This is my home colony."

The man smiled. _"All right, then. I'm Chief Debonis. We're deploying Draken-Es and helicopters to patrol the colony. We'll let you know if we see anything."_

"Thank you. Leave the mobile suits to us."

_"Understood. Debonis, out."_ The corner monitor winked to black.

"Here we go," Michel mumbled under his breath.

_"Michel, let's move! We need to get the south bay block before the Zeeks get in,"_ Sanders ordered.

"Huh? Why would the Zeeks come through the bay block when they can just attack from anywhere they want?" Michel wondered aloud.

_"I don't know why, kid. Maybe they want the colony intact for some reason. Whatever it is, I don't care. Right now, we need to get moving." _

"Right." Michel took one last look at the apartment building. Homecoming would have to come later; if he didn't fight, the Zeeks would kill everyone in the colony. With a burst of blue light, the GM Command launched into the air for the bay block.

* * *

_Pathetic. You call yourself a soldier. Look out there. Half a dozen mobile suits against a whole fleet of Zeon ships and mobile suits. My God, were you _trying_ to get everyone killed for nothing? _

Such were the thoughts that raced through the mind of ex-Zeon 2nd Lieutenant Keith Holt. Trapped in the cockpit of the overheated RX-78-2 Gundam, known to Zeon military forces as the White Devil, he could do nothing but watch helplessly as the olive and gray mobile suit approached. The Gundam refused to budge, the controls stiff and resisting his best efforts to move them. So Keith drifted in space, unable to maneuver or attack. Unable to save himself.

The pressure in his mind was growing. So unlike anything he had ever felt, the only comparison Keith could make was to his mobile suit combat instructor back at the Zeon Military Academy. A mean spirited dog of a man, he brutalized the cadets into soldiers. Keith could still remember the way he would jump to attention whenever he thought the man was near. The experience had been a withering one, with Keith living in almost constant fear of the instructor, terrified that he might be watching.

What was wrong with him? Nothing like this had happened in combat before. Even going up against Anavel Gato or Colonel Sceers hadn't sparked such a reaction. It was as though Keith could feel the strength and malevolence emanating from the Zeon mobile suit. A chill passed through him, leaving his blood to run cold.

_What's happening to me? _

Curled in a ball in a desperate struggle to retain his body heat, Keith looked up at the monitor. The computer tracked the incoming Zeon suit, which cautiously weaved its way through the debris of the _Zaku IIs_ Keith had destroyed moments ago.

"Why don't you hurry up and get it over with?" The question came out barely above a whisper.

The feeling grew stronger. Evil. That was the only word Keith could describe it as. Nothing else fit.

The computer enhanced the image of the mobile suit, now floating freely in space. Green chested and limbs painted in a dull gray, the mobile suit reminded Keith of the _Rick Dom_ with its thick armor. Gripped in its right arm was what appeared to be a beam rifle.

_So they finally did it. Not a beam cannon, a genuine beam rifle. That must be one of those _Gelgoogs_ that I heard Lady Kycilia was testing. _

It struck Keith as odd that he calmly analyzed the enemy in what was to be the final moment of his life. He had heard that your entire life supposedly flashed before your eyes in a moment when that time came. If that were true, he would rather focus on the _Gelgoog_. The past was dead; best to leave it there.

Keith gave the monitor one last pleading look. The _Gelgoog_ gripped its beam rifle with both hands, aimed at him. Amber light grew in the barrel. He shut his eyes and waited for the end.

* * *

"No you don't!" Norris Packard threw his _Zaku II_ into the Zeon mobile suit's side, shoulder spikes first. Ramming the suit's pauldron, he was rewarded with seeing the Zeon miss shooting the Gundam, though not by a comfortable margin. 

Bringing a 90mm machinegun taken from Luna II to bear, Norris squeezed off a few rounds, but the Zeon already moved out of the way. _He's fast!_

Hitting the radio, he said, "James, get going! Grab Eledore and cover the ships! I can handle this!"  
Truthfully, he wasn't completely confident that he could. But that was beside the point. Right now, he had a duty to perform, and he would do so to the best of his abilities.

Or he would die trying.

* * *

"Good luck, old man!" Federal Forces 2nd Lieutenant James Bernaria shouted as he ignited the thrusters of his RX-77-2 Guncannon. Blue light exploded from the red mobile suit's backpack, propelling it forward to the colony. James didn't like leaving Norris to fend against that new Zeon mobile suit by himself, but the man had a point. Eledore couldn't hold off the _Zakus_ swarming him forever. If even one made it through to the colony and successfully fired its payload, it would be a disaster. 

Flying through the silence of space with only the constant _hum_ of the thrusters to keep him company, James nervously tapped the throttle with the yellow gloved hand of his flight suit. There were a dozen Zeon ships out there. No matter how skilled or lucky the crew and captains of the _Osiris_ and _Speranza_, they couldn't hope to destroy such a large force. No one was that good.  
But what other choice did they have? The Zeons had proven that the Antarctic Treaty no longer bound them. Jaburo was gone, destroyed in a pair of nuclear fireballs. And according to Captain Kawada, more nukes had been detonated on Terra's surface. Zeon had to be stopped, that much was certain.

A beep on the computer snapped James back to reality. The Space Tank filled the screen, firing off pink bursts from its beam rifle. A shot speared one of the new _Zaku IIs_ that had appeared. Piercing just below the head, secondary explosions ripped through the olive mobile suit. The torso of the _Zaku_ blew apart in a ball of flames, shredding the machine's torso.

Before James could celebrate, a trio of _Zaku Is_ with unfamiliar guns blew past the Space Tank and headed for the south colony bay block. Blue thruster wash exploded from beneath the unwieldy machine as it struggled to give chase. James tried to track the Zeon suits, but they were already beyond the range of his beam rifle.

Slamming his fist on the radio, James cried, "Forget it, Eledore! We can't help them now."

"What're you talking about? They've got grenade launchers loaded with G-3 gas! Michel and Sanders can't handle that many Zakus by themselves!" Eledore's voice crackled through the Minovsky interference.

"They'll have to." Surprise rippled through James over how cold his voice sounded. "Right now we need to give the _Speranza_ and _Osiris_ some cover. I don't know about you, but I'd like to have a ship to return to."

After a moment's hesitation, Eledore grumbled, _"Fine! Let's get going."_

With that, the Space Tank continued its lazy turn, this time back towards the distant pinpricks of light that were the clashes between Federal and Zeon ships.

Before he followed suit, James hit the radio and said, "Michel, Sanders, heads up! You've got incoming, south end! Three _Zakus_, all loaded with G-3 grenade launchers."  
Not waiting for a response, James threw the throttle and took off for the battle.

* * *

_"Hey, kid, the hatch's opening. Stay sharp. Wait 'til I fire to join in."_ Sanders' voice came in clear through the radio. 

"Gotcha."

Now hovering near the bay block entrance in the center of the colony where the artificial gravity wasn't present, Michel and Sanders had positioned themselves so that they could catch the incoming Zeeks in a crossfire without shooting at each other. Sanders' RGM-79 lay flat against the colony wall so that the sliding door opened towards him, 90mm machinegun stretched out and clasped in both hands. Any mobile suits that flew out would be above his head, making them easy targets. In his specialized for colony combat RGM-79G, Michel floated a few meters out from the wall and to the side of the hatch. His 90mm aimed squarely at the rolling slab of metal, he was perfectly lined up to strafe the invading Zeeks.

_I hope you're watching, B.B. _

* * *

Sanders trained his machinegun on where the Zeek mobile suits were going to appear. Once upon a time, he had been terrified of going into combat for a third time with the same team. That had usually meant the destruction of said teammates. But the time for such fear was past. He had faced his demons and was stronger for it. The mission may be hopeless, but he refused to give up without a fight. 

His breath grew heavy, just as it did every time before he entered combat. The anticipation killed him. The waiting, the wondering of whether or not this would be his last battle.

Before his eyes, Sanders saw and heard Michel's 90mm fire. Bullets zipped into the hatch and were answered in kind.  
"Michel, move your ass!" he yelled.

Obediently, the GM Command's thruster flared, jerking the white suit out of the hail of fire. Michel continued to fire into the hatch, but one _Zaku I_ blasted its way past him and flew into the colony.

_He needs to get into the middle of the colony if he wants to use the G-3 gas to maximum effectiveness. _"Michel, go after him! I'll handle the rest."

_"R-right!"_

Peripherally, Sanders sensed the GM Command turn and pursue the lone Zeek. But he had other concerns at the moment. Pushing his thrusters to max, he shot forward and looped into the hatch. Two _Zaku Is_ awaited him.

_Time to show you Zeeks just how dangerous the Team Killer is! _

* * *

An explosion rocked the bridge of the _Speranza_, jostling Warrant Officer Tiffany Patcher, one-time Medea Supply Corps officer and now acting captain of an assault carrier in the Federal Fleet, around in her command chair. "Damage report!" 

Beyond the bridge and the men and women clad in Federation-issue white normal suits, the battle continued. _Rick Doms_ and _Zaku IIs _swarmed around their mother _Musais_, acting as screens. The olive colored light cruisers unleashed their fury at the _Speranza_; amber light exploded from multiple points, all converging on the Federal ship. The pilot shouted something over the radio and jerked the _Speranza_in a maneuver that had Tiff gripping the armrests to keep still. When she looked up, a crippled _Chivvay_ heavy cruiser, its command tower a mere stump, filled the view.

It took Tiff a moment to realize what the pilot had done. He had interposed the wrecked vessel between the _Speranza_ and the Zeon fleet, simultaneously dodging the barrage and preventing them from getting a clear shot. With Minovsky particles jamming radar and tracking instruments, the Zeon gunners would be forced to rely upon visuals to target anything, greatly decreasing their accuracy.

Tiff smiled beneath her helmeted face. She could grow to like this crew.

"Where's that report?!" she snapped. On the other hand…

_"We've lost the port side cannon, forty percent of the AA batteries, and half the missile launchers!"_ someone yelled through the radio.

Before Tiff could respond, another explosion knocked the bridge crew around. Thankfully, no one flew across the room. "What was that?!"  
The same male voice answered. _"The starboard engine nacelle is hit! It's gonna explode!" _

"Eject it!"

_"Yes, sir!"_

With an audible groan, Tiff felt the nacelle physically separate from the _Speranza_. Scant moments later, yet another explosion visited the bridge.

"Status!"  
_"Helm is sluggish! We're lucky we can still maneuver, but not much." _

_"Hull integrity in the stern is gone, repeat, gone! We're sealing off those sections." _

_"Stern weapons are shot. We're helpless back here!" _

Tiff closed her eyes as the reality of events closed in on her. The _Speranza_ appeared to be destined for destruction, and her crew along with her. Weapons destroyed, maneuvering no longer worth mentioning, hull breached-there wasn't much life left to the girl. A pity that she had only been in operation for less than two weeks. With the ship destroyed, only Keith and the other mobile suit pilots would be left to resist the Zeons. Keith and James. Eledore and Sanders. Norris and Michel.

Tiff frowned. She had forgotten somebody. Who?

"What about the _Osiris_? Where is she?"

_"She's below us and to starboard. She doesn't look good, sir." _

The modified _Magellan_ appeared on the main monitor, above the bridge. Indeed, from the angle the _Speranza_ had of it, the vessel looked more like a child's toy that had been cooked in an oven than a warship. The mangled port hull was absent, exposing decks and crewmen to vacuum. Blue sparks raced across the disproportionally large barrel mounted on the bow of the ship. The remaining mega particle cannons spewed pink particle beams at a constant rate, something that was sure to put a strain on the damaged battleship.

"Can we contact Captain Kawada?"

_"Negative. Minovsky density is too great." _

"Any sign of our mobile suits?"

_"No, sir."_

"All right. Guns, is there anything we can target?"

_"You're kidding, right?" _

"No."

_"Captain! The _Osiris_ is firing!" _

"What?"

Sure enough, the main monitor flashed bright as the modified _Magellan_ fired its main weapon. The white shell shot through space and off screen, beyond the range of the _Speranza's_ visual sensors.

_I hope it was worth it._

* * *

_I hope that was worth it._

"Damage report!" Captain Lee Kawada demanded.

_"Sir! The railgun is slagged; we won't get another shot off." _

"Tell me we hit something."

One of his aides spoke. _"We can't be sure, sir, because of the Minovsky particles-"_

"Yes or no, did we hit anything!?"

_"I believe we may have damaged two, possibly three _Musais_ with that last shot." _

Kawada leaned into his seat and smiled. It had been a gamble, firing the railgun like that. But it worked. "So they've lost half their ships, right?"  
_"Yes, sir."_

"Where are we on guns?"

This time the gunnery officer spoke. _"Port side guns destroyed. We've still got the forward and starboard cannons, plus the AA batteries there. We're still in the fight."_

"Thanks for the encouragement, Guns. What's the closest Zeon ship to us?"

_"Looks like a _Chivvay_, the one hanging to the rear there." _

"The flagship, perfect. Helm, rotate us to bring all the cannons to bear on that cruiser. Guns will tell you when you're in position. Try to keep our profile as narrow as possible. I don't want some Zeek gunner getting any bright ideas."

_"Captain! Mobile suits, incoming!"_ the radar technician cried.

_No!_ "How many? What direction?"

_"Three suits, _Doms_. They're approaching us from port. They'll be in firing range in thirty seconds!" _

Kawada felt the younger man's fear. The port hull lay open to attack, with no armor or AA batteries to defend with. Three mobile suits would be more than enough to destroy the _Osiris_. Anyone who had survived the Battle of Loum knew of the destructive power mobile suits had against ships.

"Helm, can we rotate fast enough to track them?"

_"With half the apogee motors gone? Not fast enough." _

"Fine. Continue to track that _Chivvay_. Fire as soon as it comes within firing range."

_"Yes, sir!"_

_"Sir, shouldn't we try to escape?" _

Under normal circumstances, Kawada found it hard enough to tolerate his aide. He was a good enough man in his own way, but better suited for a desk job than the frontlines. Kawada had argued with his assignment to the _Osiris_, but had lost to the lack of manpower that plagued the Federation.  
"Mr. Gehr, our duty is to destroy as many Zeon ships as possible. Our survival at this point is a secondary."

A gulp filtered through the radio, followed by labored breathing.

"Is that _Chivvay_ in range yet?"

_"We are…now!"_

"Fire at will! Make 'em count. Where are those _Doms_?"

A gasp answered Kawada. A glowing pink eye blocked the bridge view, outlined by the T-shaped face of an MS-09R _Rick Dom_.

Kawada felt stomach freeze. His luck had run out. Making it through the One Week Battle, surviving the Battles of Loum and Luna II-death had finally caught up with him.

In what seemed to be an eternity, the _Rick Dom_ raised its massive bazooka and leveled the barrel with the bridge. Kawada forced his eyes to stay open. Whatever happened, he wanted to face his death without running.

Then a pink beam struck the _Rick Dom_. More accurately, the beam stuck the bazooka and the ammunition clip that housed shells. The shells exploded, shredding the suit's right arm and torso. The black and violet mobile suit careened to starboard, only to be caught by a concentrated antiaircraft salvo.

"What the hell was that?" Kawada barely muttered.

A _Rick Dom_ blasted past the bridge, a GM Space Command right on its heels. The GM pumped half a dozen shots at the Zeon mobile suit, finally piercing the backpack and destroying the machine.

Cheers echoed through the radio as the radar operator announced, _"We have six GMs taking up escort formation around us! The _Doms_ have been eliminated. Additional GMs have formed up on the _Speranza_. Oh my God! Another assault carrier has appeared!" _

"Well?" Kawada snapped. "Which is it?"

_"It's the _Gray Phantom

* * *

"Where the hell did that ship come from?!" Zeon Captain Quincy Conscon demanded of his crew. From out of nowhere, a _new_ Feddie ship had appeared, throwing the outcome of the battle into doubt. And just as they were about to win! 

"Well!"

"Sir, it seems as though it came from one of colonies. With the Minovsky density disrupting radar-"

"Never mind how it got here!" Conscon interrupted his executive officer. "I want it dead, now! The Trojan Horse can wait till later. What about that _Magellan_?"

"It seems to be retreating, sir. Some of our mobile suits are engaging the GMs that are protecting her; our forces can't make it through the defense line."

"Forget about it, then. Signal the _Behemoth_ and _Graf Zeppelin_; I want a concentrated barrage on that new ship in thirty seconds. Missiles, main guns, everything! Fire on our signal."

"Um, sir, the _Graf Zeppelin_ is too far to the rear to accurately target the Federal vessel. And the _Behemoth_ is already exchanging fire with the ship."

"Fine!" Conscon shouted in exasperation. "Just target the Feddies and fire!"

"Yes, sir!"

A wolfish smile sneaked its way onto Conscon's face. _I've got you now! _

* * *

With an ease that would have scared him if he'd had to think about it, James Bernaria fired his beam rifle and speared another _Zaku II_. The green mobile suit exploded, peppering its identical partner, who quickly contributed to the mess when missiles swarmed it. A trio of the new _Zaku IIs _arrived to take their place, but a quartet of RGM-79GS GM Space Commands roared past James to challenge them. 

Allowing for the newcomers to take over for him, James scanned his weapon displays. The beam rifle had enough energy for a handful of shots, but the 280mm cannons were shot. He'd taken a couple of bazooka rounds in the backpack from a _Rick Dom_ earlier before Eledore blew it apart with a shot from his beam rifle. The Guncannon had held together, but one of the shoulder cannons had been blown clean off, shredding the left arm. The other cannon barrel resembled a crushed soda can.

Glancing around, he found the Space Tank floating nearby and flew to it, tricky business since the foot thrusters were all that James had to propel himself. Once he had closed the distance between the two machines, he reached out an arm and laid a hand on its head. "How're you doing, Eledore?"

_"How do you think I'm doing! The missile pods are empty or blown to hell, the beam rifle won't fire, and I'm outta weapons!"_

_He sounds just a little bit pissed._ "Look at the bright side. At least you won't have to ram anybody to keep fighting."

_"Bright side? I'd rather be in one of those GMs and kicking some ass than stuck in this useless piece of shit!"_

"Down boy! Talk like that won't help you kill Zeeks. C'mon, let's get back to the _Speranza_ and leave the Zeeks to those guys."

_"Fine, whatever. It's not like I'm getting anything done here anyway."_ Eledore sounded sullen, but that beat the anger of a few moments ago.

"You go ahead; I'll cover you."

Eledore mumbled an acknowledged before firing up the Space Tank's thrusters and began trudging back to the _Speranza_. Tracking the Space Tank with one eye, James took one last survey of the battlefield. With the arrival of the new assault carrier and its GMs, the battle had shifted in their favor. More than half of the original twelve Zeon ships were destroyed, along with a good chunk of their mobile suit force. James hadn't heard anything from the colony, but he assumed that Sanders could keep an eye on Michel. Only a few _Zakus_ escaped James and Eledore before they retreated to cover the ships. Sanders and Michel could handle them.

Or so he hoped.

* * *

The _Zaku's_ pilot was good, all right. Michel had been playing hide-and-seek with the Zeek for the last fifteen minutes inside the city, all to no avail. He had managed to nail the grenade launcher before the Zeek had fled into the darkened city and disappeared. Any attempts to get the pilot to surrender were answered with silence. It made no sense. Unable to accomplish his mission, the Zeek's best option was to surrender. But for some reason, the Zeek refused to give up. 

Michel wanted to scream in frustration. _What's wrong with this guy? Doesn't he see that he's better off giving up than trying to escape? At this rate, someone might die! _

_"He's on Main Street, heading south! He just passed the court house!" _the voice of one of the colony's civil defense force officers squawked through the radio.

"I'm on it!" Michel shot the GM Command into the air for the colony's busiest roadway. The sudden acceleration slammed him into his seat, but Michel pushed past the force. _I won't let you hurt anyone! _

A few moments later, he landed with a crash on the wide road, but managed to keep the GM's footing. Swinging the 90mm machinegun to where the _Zaku I_ should have been, Michel barely got a glimpse of the blue-and-green mobile suit before it ducked down another road.

_Oh no you don't!_ The GM flew into the air once more, hoping to intercept the _Zaku_. Pushing more power to the thrusters, Michel hurled over the streets and past the Zeon suit. He twisted the GM midair in a gut wrenching maneuver that his stomach protested, verniers flaring to keeping up.

It worked. The maneuver left Michel facing the _Zaku_ as he sailed through the air. Lighting up the thrusters, he killed his rear momentum and flew towards the Zeek, crashing to the ground before him. The GM automatically straightened itself, leveling its 90mm machinegun at the mono-eyed mobile suit. The lights of the street, combined with the darkness, illuminated the _Zaku_ in an eeriness that the malevolent glowing mono-eye only contributed to.

_Gotcha!_ Toggling the radio, Michel said, "To the Zeon mobile suit, this is your last chance! Surrender, and I'll spare your life."

The _Zaku I_ didn't budge.

_What's he doing? _"Hey, didn't you hear me!? If you don't give up, and right now, you're going to die!"

The monitor in the corner flared to life with Sanders appearing on it. _"Michel, what's your situation?"_

Michel looked up at the tiny image. "Nothing I can't handle. I'll be done in just a second."

As Michel turned his attention back to the Zeek, he _moved_. The _Zaku_ darted forward and slammed a right hook into the GM Command's head, shattering the visor and crushing one of the Vulcans. Composite metals fell to the street below, clanking as the pieces landed. In the cockpit, the monitors erupted in static.

In a panic, Michel squeezed the trigger. 90mm rounds ripped from the machinegun, spraying across the _Zaku's_ midriff. Michel shoved the GM's shield between them and pushed.

_Clunk_.

As the _Zaku_ began to fall, its fingers grasped the shield and clung around the edges, dragging the GM down with it.

"Ahhh!" Michel cried as he slammed his eyes shut. He felt himself falling, that dizzying sensation as the g-forces lightened and his stomach threatened to empty itself through his mouth. Then he crashed against the shoulder straps. Miraculously, they held. The left monitor shattered, spraying shards all over the cockpit and peppering his arm.

Trying hard to ignore the stinging in his left arm, Michel muttered, "What's wrong with this guy?"

Michel ejected the shield, hopefully pinning the Zeek in place for awhile. He pushed the GM's arms out, lifting the 56-ton mobile suit to its hands and knees. The backup camera finally popped online, restoring his vision.

Broken gravel welcomed him.

"Where'd he go?" Michel wondered aloud.

_Beepbeepbeep_.

Michel snapped his head up, only to see the _Zaku's_ leg filling the monitor. Jamming down on the trigger, the Vulcans fired. The Vulcan that had been damaged by the earlier attack blew metal chunks in all directions. The other spat 60mm rounds at the leg, chewing up the high tensile steel.

Suddenly, the cockpit rattled again. On the monitor, something tan slammed into the gravel, propelled by the blue fisted _Zaku I_. Michel realized in horror that the Zeek had just ripped the GM's head off.

Shoving his arms forward, the backpack ignited. The GM Command lurched forward and tackled the _Zaku_ in a giant bear hug.

"Just die already!" Michel pushed the thrusters to the limit, shooting the two mobile suits down the street. The _Zaku_ thrashed in the GM's embrace but could not escape.

_"Are you insane?! You'll kill us both!"_ the Zeek yelled through the skin com.

Michel did not let up. He poured every last milliliter of propellant into the thrusters, against the protests of his bloody left arm.

In a grand close befitting the fight, the two mobile suits collided with one of the buildings. The duo plowed through the (relatively) short structure before screeching to a halt on the street behind the building.

Breathing heavily, Michel sighed with relief that the _Zaku_ remained on the ground unmoving. It was only when he scanned the operational monitors that something struck him as wrong. Bricks were scattered everywhere on the street.

Then it hit him.

* * *

Zeon Captain Erik von Helsing had to give the Federal Forces credit; they were putting up a terrific fight, despite their numerical inferiority. In the time since combat began, the Federal vessels managed to damage or destroy many times their number. Von Helsing could not think of many warship captains that matched the sheer ferocity of these enemies. 

"Lieutenant, what is the status of the fleet?" he asked his aide in a clipped accent befitting his German heritage. For a moment, von Helsing worried about the vulnerability of his crew. The unexpected presence of the Federal Forces forced them to forego the normal suits they usually wore in combat. If the enemy succeeded in striking the _Graf Zeppelin_, the chances of surviving were indeed low.

"Sir, Lieutenant Commander Fitzloff and the _Leviathan_ squadron have been destroyed. One of Captain Conscon's _Musais_ has also been sunk, as has one of Commander Athans'," the helmeted man answered.

"Mobile suit count?"

"Before the enemy ships broadcast Minovsky particles, we had lost twelve suits, all _Zakus_."

"Against six mobile suits? Why are our pilots fighting like children?"

"Well, sir, most of them are draftees fresh out of pilot training. They've been fully trained, but they lack combat experience."

Von Helsing said nothing. His anger kept him from saying anything. This mission was supposed to be a milk run, as the men called it. Proceed to Side 6, wave the proverbial flag around in a show of force the Riah government, and in the meantime search for the hidden Federation base that Intelligence said was located in one of the colonies.

Instead, he and his men were fighting and dying against a skilled foe that may be beyond any of them. Von Helsing cared about the men under his command; he did not spend their lives recklessly. They were sons of Zeon, not the scum of Terra. Cannon fodder tactics better suited the pigs that were weighed down by gravity.

"Status of the enemy fleet?" he finally managed to bite out.

"The Trojan Horse is still hiding behind the wreckage of the _Leviathan_." _I knew that ship would be trouble. Dammit, Conscon, that was the vessel that killed Garma Zabi and the Black Tri-Stars! _Attacking the Trojan Horse was out. There still might be crewmen alive on the _Leviathan_; von Helsing would not be responsible for killing them when they could yet live. "The _Magellan_ has pulled back beyond firing range and it appears that multiple GMs have formed a screen around it." Another option gone. "The third Fed ship is advancing on Commander Athans' fleet, with its GMs pushing our forces back."

"Is-"

"Sir, the _Gwanza_ is taking fire from the Feddie ship!"

"What!? Put it on the main monitor." Immediately, the flagship _Chivvay_ appeared on the monitor, her bridge aflame and bow in tatters. Mega particle beams danced across the crimson heavy cruiser, leaving death wherever they touched.

"I'm taking command of the fleet! Launch the signal flare to retreat; we can't accomplish our objectives. Lay down a missile barrage to cover the _Behemoth_ and our mobile suits. Get us out of here as fast as possible." Silently, von Helsing added: _we have lost._

* * *

Former Zeon Captain Norris Packard found himself in the battle of his life. Never before had his skills as a soldier been tested to his limits like they were now. Piloting an MS-06S _Zaku II_, the last Zeon mobile suit given to the 'Odessa Avenger' Keith Holt before the Jaburo Incident, Norris knew he was outclassed. No amount of skill or experience could make up the difference in performance between the _Zaku II_ and the bulky Zeon mobile suit he faced. 

But destroying the Zeon suit wasn't Norris' objective. Delaying him long enough to get the Gundam back up and running was. All Keith needed was a little time.

Time Norris was rapidly running out of.

The final rocket spewed from the bazooka clasped in the _Zaku's_ right hand, exploding on impact. To his horror, Norris saw that his foe had survived with only a heavily damaged shield. Swiftly, it retaliated with a few potshots at Norris. Jerking the _Zaku_ in an erratic pattern, Norris avoided the amber particle beams, but he could feel the mobile suit groan in protest. _This wasn't designed for this level of combat. I can't keep this up forever. _

The Zeon fired again, this time shearing off the _Zaku II's_ right arm. Norris returned the favor with a burst of his machinegun. The rounds caught the exposed left arm, drilling into the forearm and elbow. Blackened holes appeared where gray steel had previously been unblemished, punctuated by flashes of electricity.

_C'mon, Keith, where are you?_

* * *

"Why is he still fighting?" Keith asked as he watched the duel unfold between Norris and the _Gelgoog_. "Doesn't he realize I'm not worth saving?" 

The dancing figures, silver and gray, flew across his monitor in an intricate waltz that only experienced soldiers could follow. A lunge, a parry, a burst of machinegun fire, a beam rifle firing-that was the dance that they played.

His monitor flashed insistently. Tearing his eyes from the fighters, Keith focused his eyes on the glowing schematic on the side monitor. All green.

_Then there is hope._

Reaching out, Keith grasped the controls. They felt cold to his touch, even through the white gloves of his flight suit. He tapped the throttle and was rewarded with the Gundam's thrusters flaring. More confident, he tightened his grip on the controls. _I can do this. _

The beam sabers had less than a minute of operation time left in them. It would have to be enough.

In a flash of blue light, the Gundam climbed rapidly towards Norris and the _Gelgoog_. Every cell of his being concentrated on closing the gap between them. Nothing would hinder him. Within seconds, the distance separating them was gone.

His timing was perfect. The _Zaku II_ had lost its right arm, and its legs were stumps that ended at the knee and waist armor. The _Gelgoog_ had lined up its beam rifle with the cockpit, leaving no chance for Norris to dodge.

Pink lances blazing to life in either hand, the Gundam sliced the Zeon's beam rifle in half. The _Gelgoog_ released the beam rifle just as it exploded. Keith plowed through the fireball and slashed at the Zeon suit with his left saber, only for it to collide with the _Gelgoog_'s own beam blade. The two stood for a half-second that seemed to last an age, the amber glow of the Gundam's eyes meeting the unyielding pink glare of the _Gelgoog_'s mono-eye.

Screaming, Keith stabbed his right saber straight through the Zeon machine's face, punctuated by secondary explosions. Before he could move it downward to finish the job, the _Gelgoog_ swung its beam saber, lopping off the right arm of the Gundam just above the elbow. Keith quickly swung his left saber again, only for it to again clash with his foe's own energy blade. In shock, he saw that the _Gelgoog_'s saber seemed to have sprouted another blade from the other end of its saber hilt.

_I can't beat him in an outright melee... _Desperately searching for something to help slow down his opponent, Keith's fingers found the Vulcans. Aiming them for where he roughly guessed the enemy Suit's secondary cameras would be, he hammered the trigger with a silent prayer to whatever deity looked after outmatched MS pilots.

He couldn't believe his luck; the Zeon Suit staggered back, lifting its left arm up to protect its "eyes" with a general manner that looked like it was somehow in pain. Seizing his chance, Keith swung his remaining beam saber with a renewed resolve not to miss. The blade neatly, cleanly sliced off the _Gelgoog_'s right arm, the double-ended saber dying as the power was cut.

To his shock, the Zeon recovered much faster than he'd hoped. Its left arm lunged forward, grabbing the Gundam's own and pulling it. Gritting his teeth, Keith slammed on the verniers, hoping his MS would be able to escape the gray-and-green monstrosity's grip.The pink beam still held in the Gundam's hand began to splutter and fizzle out, even as the _Gelgoog_ began to slowly wrench its forearm from its housing.

The creak of tortured Luna Titanium began to increase in volume; the _Gelgoog_ had the sheer power needed to win this mechanical tug-of-war. Deactivating the saber, Keith quickly let go of it before turning the Gundam's Vulcans towards it. He only hoped he'd be able to survive after doing this; maybe the saber wouldn't have the power left to achieve the effect he wanted. On the other hand, it might have too much.

He fired. 60mm shells shredded the saber and caused it to empty its last remaining energy in a blinding fireball, even as Keith made one last push with his verniers. The blast blew his suit back, even as he righted himself he saw he hadn't saved the Gundam's forearm: its mangled remains now lay in the equally-ruined _Gelgoog _arm's grip. Still, a stalemate was a pretty good result considering he'd never fought an enemy with such power before.

Keith then noticed an incoming transmission; quickly he put it through. __

_"Gundam, you hear me?" _The range finder showed the transmission came from the Zeon, which was now floating slowly away.

"Trying to surrender? If you are, I accept."

_"You Feddies are all alike, you know that? Think just because you're from Terra that you can step all over us." _

Keith frowned beneath his helmet. Had he ever been like this? "Cut the crap. If Zeon was really interested in Spacenoid independence, you wouldn't've murdered all those innocents in the One Week War!"

Telltale signs of thrusters flickered over the _Gelgoog_. _"Innocents? Don't be stupid. They supported the Federation, whether they knew it or not."_

"That doesn't justify anything! They weren't fighting for the Feddies!"

The _Gelgoog_ was almost out of radio range now. _"Of course they were. If they had been _real_ Spacenoids, they would have supported the ideals of Zeon Deikun and joined us. There can be no neutrality in this war-you're either with us or against us." _

Keith opened his mouth with a retort, but the transmission cut off. The Zeon was gone.

_"Hey, Gundam, you alive?"_ a voice crackled through the radio. Keith looked up on his monitor. A pair of red and white GM Space Commands approached him, one peeling off to investigate Norris in the _Zaku II_. The other continued on its course for him.

Keith took one last look in the direction of the _Gelgoog_. "Yeah, I'm alive. Let's get out of here."

* * *

Temporary author's notes: greetings one and all. I go by the name Arkbot on here, though if you happen to hang around Gundam Watch or other Gundam forums, you'll find me running around as plain ol' Ark. I'm honored with the opportunity I have in contributing to _Federation's End_, and I hope that I do an adequate job of filling Tommah-Kun's boots. 

For those of you wondering why so much of the dialogue shows up in italics, that's just my way of distinguishing radio transmissions. That's why none the _Gwanza_ or _Graf Zeppelin's_ crews have them: they're not in normal suits, since the _Speranza_ and _Osiris_ showed up out of nowhere and surprised them.

Mecha info: Captain von Helsing is indeed canon (though his first name is made up, same as Conscon's). His fleet (the _Graf Zeppelin_, plus the _Siegfried_ and _Valkyrie_) are the ships featured in _Gundam 0080_ that cover Bernie as he infiltrates Libot in episode 2, as well as attempting to nuke the place later in the series. I figured that by this point, only a handful of United Maintenance Plan products would have made it to the battlefield, hence only von Helsing and the Mobile Assault Force squadrons being equipped with UMP mobile suits.


End file.
